Kesar Pista Lassi (केसर पिस्ता लस्सी) is a Saffron, and Pistachio flavoured curd smoothie. Okay, I just hilariously translated the recipe’s name into English. Jokes apart, today we will be making (kesar-pista) lassi, the favourite drink of India, especially North India.


Surprisingly this Indian curd-based drink is quite popular across the globe. All thanks to the Indian citizens, especially people of the Punjabi community who settle abroad.

We all know that lassi is a traditional beverage heavily consumed in the scorching heat of summer. However, lassi is all-time available in the northern regions of India. Kind of a staple drink. It is similar to masala chaas in Gujarat. Irrespective of the season, Gujaratis drink masala chaas daily with main course items. However, the demand for masala chaas grows in the summer, just like lassi.

Therefore, lassi and masala chaas go hand in hand. With this in mind, let’s begin making it first. Here we go.

The Taste of Kesar Pista Lassi

It is a summer coolant made using fresh homemade curd, pistachio and saffron strands. In other words, the kesar pista lassi is a welcome drink for guests in Indian households. I am calling it a welcome drink because of the overall time consumed in making it. It hardly takes 5 minutes. Yes, that’s true.

If you want to serve chilled lassi, toss it into the refrigerator instead of adding ice cubes. This way, your lassi won’t be watery.

Of course, the taste is sweet because of sugar. Pistachio is only 2 tbsp which is not overpowering. Since we are making pista flavour, lassi pistachio will be the primary dry fruit. There’s no point in adding other dry fruit because they will quickly take over the prominent flavour.

Color & Texture of Lassi

Immaterial of the flavour, your lassi will always be smooth and thick. It is because it is meant to be likewise, provided you don’t add too many ice cubes or water. Like I said above, toss the lassi in the fridge for a couple of hours to serve chilled.

Your lassi will be pale green or medium-light green in colour due to pistachio nuts. Besides, we also have saffron milk which is yellow still it won’t overpower the green one. So the final output will be pale to medium green. On the contrary, if you add green food colour, then the green colour will be visibly intense.