Recipe
🥤 DRINK
Lahori Sweet Lassi
Thick, frothy yogurt whipped with sugar and a little cream and served in a tall metal tumbler, the pride of a Lahore breakfast.
Pakistani · easy · serves 4
prep 10 min · cook 0 min
~201 cal · 6g protein · 26g carbs · 8g fat · 0g fiber · 26g sugars · 5g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
↓ Jump to Recipe
AI-generated illustration
In Lahore, lassi is taken very seriously indeed, a proper institution of the Punjabi morning rather than a mere drink. Thick, rich buffalo-milk yogurt is churned hard with sugar, water, and often a spoonful of cream and malai until it turns smooth and frothy, then poured into towering metal tumblers and crowned with a cap of foam.
The buffalo milk is key: it makes the yogurt luxuriously thick, so a Lahori sweet lassi is almost a meal in itself, filling and cooling at once. Some shops finish it with even more clotted cream on top, gilding an already indulgent glass.
It is the classic companion to a heavy Lahori breakfast of halwa puri or paratha, its coolness balancing the rich, fried food, and it is drunk through the hot months to beat the Punjab heat. Sweet, thick, and refreshing, a Lahori lassi is one of the great pleasures of the city's food culture.
Saved recipes and passport stamps are kept on this device. Sign in to keep them across your devices and leave reviews.
Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and gluten-, nut-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
3 cups thick plain yogurt (dahi)
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 tsp green , freshly ground
1/2 tsp rose water (optional)
1 cup cold water
to serve ice
2 tbsp cream (malai), to top
Instructions
1
Chill the yogurt and the jug first, then blend the yogurt with the sugar, cardamom and cold water for a full minute or more, until completely smooth, frothy and lightened with air.
✎ Chef’s note
Full-fat dahi and nothing else; low-fat yogurt gives a thin, sharp lassi with none of the body. If yours is watery, hang it in muslin for half an hour first. Start cold and blend long: warm yogurt makes a lukewarm lassi, and the froth comes from the time in the blender. A trick worth knowing is to freeze a few cubes of dahi itself and use those instead of ice, so it chills without thinning.
2
Taste and adjust the sweetness, then stir the rose water through by hand if you are using it.
✎ Chef’s note
Rose water goes in by hand, never in the blender. Blending scatters the aroma through the drink and it disappears; stirred in gently it stays on top where you can smell it. Half a teaspoon is plenty.
3
Pour over ice into tall tumblers.
4
Spoon the cream over the back of a spoon held close to the surface, so it sits as a cap rather than sinking in, and serve at once while it is still foamy.
✎ Chef’s note
A Lahori lassi is thicker and colder than its Indian cousins, and the malai on top is generous enough that you half eat it before you drink. Crushed pistachios and a few strands of saffron go over the cream, and the traditional glass is a clay kulhar, which keeps it cold. Traditionally it is churned with a wooden madhani rather than blended; the stick aerates without breaking the emulsion. The name may come from the luss-luss-luss sound the madhani makes, or from the Punjabi lass, meaning mixture; both are offered and neither is settled.
Lahori breakfast tradition.
Ratings & reviews
Cooked it? Rate this dish:
No account needed. Sign in to leave a full review with a comment.
Cooked it?
Kept on this device, no account needed. Sign in to leave a review and keep your passport across your devices.
No reviews yet, be the first to cook it.
🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Lahore (Punjab). Lahore is Pakistan's food capital, famous for rich nihari, charcoal-grilled karahi, and buttery breakfast halwa puri. Punjabi generosity and Mughal heritage make it a city that lives to eat.
🗺️
Pakistan. Partition rewrote Pakistani menus. Muhajir families arriving from northern India after 1947 brought their own biryani, which is why Karachi's version is its own thing, heavier on potato, tomato and sourness than the Sindhi or Lahori styles. The tandoor remains a neighbourhood facility as much as a kitchen fixture, with dough carried to it and bread carried back.
🌍
Asia. Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, and its food spans the delicate seasonality of Japanese washoku, the chili-fired curries of India and Thailand, and the wheat-and-lamb traditions of Central Asia. Rice, noodles, soy, and fermentation recur across its regions, while ancient spice routes and religious traditions shaped distinct grammars of flavor. Whether from a street-cart wok or a monastery kitchen, eating is deeply communal and ritual-rich.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Pakistan
Lahori Chicken KarahiChicken flash-cooked in a wok-like karahi with tomatoes, ginger, and black pepper, no onions, no shortcuts.
Halwa PuriA festive Lahori breakfast of puffed fried puri, sweet semolina halwa, and spiced chickpeas.
Chapli KababFlat, spiced minced-beef patties studded with tomato and pomegranate, shallow-fried crisp, a Khyber specialty.
Browse all Pakistan recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Blender.
Storing it: Keep chilled and covered, and enjoy within 2 to 3 days.
Make it a Pakistan meal
Lahori Chicken KarahiDinner
KheerDessert
Similar dishes from around the world
Lao Iced Coffee (Kafe Nom Yen)Laos
AloudaMauritius
KissanguaAngola
Air KatiraBrunei
Zoom KoomBurkina Faso
Tuk Ampov (Sugarcane Juice)Cambodia
Drinks
Frequently asked questions
What is Lahori Sweet Lassi?
Thick, frothy yogurt whipped with sugar and a little cream and served in a tall metal tumbler, the pride of a Lahore breakfast.
Where does Lahori Sweet Lassi come from?
Lahori Sweet Lassi is a Pakistani dish from Lahore (Punjab), Pakistan.
Can Lahori Sweet Lassi be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Lahori Sweet Lassi recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Lahori Sweet Lassi safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Lahori Sweet Lassi take to make?
About 10 minutes total (10 minutes prep, 0 minutes cooking), serving 4.
Get the Sunday Spin
One dish from somewhere in the world, in your inbox every Sunday. No spam, just dinner inspiration you can cook that day.