I modified this from recipes I found online. It’s one of those things that doesn’t actually require cooking, it just requires dumping everything in a blender. And it’s way easier on my system (particularly whichever spot my gallbladder used to be) than the full-fat variety (that often even has cream in it in addition to yogurt):
1 cup of water
3 to 4 cups of low-fat or non-fat plain yogurt (I have had trouble measuring it, but it’s somewhere in there)
1/3 cup of sugar
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of rosewater
However much fruit you want (I’ve been adding a half a peach or a whole peach, but it can be any kind of fruit and any amount that tastes good)
Stick it all in blender. Blend it until everything’s blended in smoothly and it’s frothy on top. Then pour it out and drink it. (I got the fruit idea because I’ve had mango lassi, but there aren’t any mangoes around at the moment, so I figured any fruit would work.)
Ballastexistenz 
Sounds good! If you had extra vanilla yogurt instead of extra plain yogurt, you would leave out the sugar?
Probably, but the vanilla flavor would also change the entire flavor of the thing.
yeah, huh.
I’m so used to the idea that you add vanilla to all sweet recipes (and garlic, plus possibly hot-pepper of some kind, to all non-sweet recipes) that I forgot about the possibility of leaving it out. (^_^)
PS: where does one buy RoseWater?
Around here, there’s one of those overpriced food co-op places that has it, I’ve heard Middle Eastern and Indian grocery stores often have it. Regular grocery stores might even have it for all I know (I don’t know how common an ingredient it normally is — I’ve heard it’s used in some marzipan, too, so you could look for it in places that’d be likely to have ingredients for that). Be sure to get the kind used for cooking, not the kind used for cosmetics. If all else fails, I bet you could buy some online.
I love salty lassis – yuk to the mango ones. There’s something about rosewater that completely confuses my taste buds. Ideal for my current predicament, thanks for the timely reminder.
Cheers
Ah! That cup is one of my favorite patterns to look at in that brand!
(We don’t have them because the shape of the plates in that pattern is not to my husband’s liking. We got a pattern in a plate-shape he was happier with, but it’s not as pretty and green-based. If I ever got a tea kettle for the stove, as opposed to an electric kettle, I’d want one with that pattern.)
I’d comment about the recipe, but with dairy allergies and an allergy to roses (to where I don’t know if something with rosewater as an ingredient would be a good idea or not, but I ought to be able to test that within the next few months under sufficiently controlled circumstances), I don’t think it would be a good idea for me to even think about it, lest I add it to my list of Things I’d Love To Consume But Really, Really Can’t. I’m glad you’re enjoying it, though, I like the thought of someone else enjoying something even if I can’t.
Julia, have you tried experimenting with soy milk (or rice milk or nut-based milks), or with soy yogurt etc? Or do you have problems with soy too? I find that in many recipes, the soy variant comes close enough to the dairy variant to work pretty well.
Soy milk, at least, you can often find in mainstream groceries these days (at least in the US) … I especially like the “Silk” brand. For non-soy non-dairy beverages, a natural food store is usually a better bet. Ditto for soy yogurts. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a non-soy non-dairy yogurt.
The Vegetarian Resource Group (http://www.vrg.org) is sometimes able to help with ideas, too, for anyone looking for creative substitutes to dairy etc — if you can’t find good ideas on their web site, drop them a line and ask, they’re usually pretty responsive.
I haven’t tried soy yet. I probably should. Thank you for the recommendation.
I have historically, however, had a problem specifically with the active cultures — the lactose problems just compound that. I’d need to experiment at a time where it wouldn’t create a crisis for anyone but me if the soy yogurt were a problem for me. (I’ve been waiting for that sort of opportunity for a few years now. Maybe sometime this summer….)
Ah. I was drinking this because of the active cultures. (Because I was on antibiotics.)
Yes. I’m about to have to try the dairy-free stuff we have, see if that helps any with the antibiotics I was put on today. :P (BTW, the “rapid screen” strep tests come up positive only 80% of the time there’s actually strep. So my “negative” on Tuesday turned up as “positive” on Friday but I didn’t get the message in time to get the script before today.)
On a recent round of antibiotics, it took me 10 days to recover from the 7-day course of antibiotics. :P What I have now is a little nicer to my system, but still not without negative effects. (I’m building up a list of “antibiotics I really don’t want to take”.)
I had never even heard of lassi until last weekend when I randomly went into an Indian deli / restaurant and ordered a mango lassi. It was so very good–I appreciate finding this recipe.
A bit off topic, but I was actually checking out this site because I was very intrigued by the slate-style computer I saw on the cnn bit. As much as the lassi recipe is a find in and of itself, I was wondering if you can tell a bit more about the make / model of that computer? It seems like a great form factor for me as I walk everywhere and am not a huge fan of the bulk of most portable computers.
I’ve looked quite a bit in the past and have never really found anything that looked as ideal.
Thanks for any info!
I love to drink lassis. My grown son introduced them to me. We are lucky that our supermarket has Rose Water. I am all for good things to eat that I don’t have to cook
Andrew:
The devise you saw Amanda use is a speech synthesizer / communication assistive device. Somewhere around this blog is a link to the web page for the company that makes it, though I can’t remember now where I saw it. You could try searching around for it, or maybe google it or something. It’s made by some company that specializes in communication devices for people who can’t speak (everything from typing/speech synthesizer devices to picture communication boards).
Thank you for the info, Andrea!
I’ll check out the company if I can find the link, but I was really hoping it was just a plain old PC : )
Granted, I probably shouldn’t be computing on my walk to work anyway…
Thanks again.
Andrew, another notion just now occurs to me: have you considered a blackberry or Sidekick cell phone? They don’t do everything computers do, but you can thumb type with them (a full keyboard, so you don’t have to double and triple click to get each letter). I’m not as familiar with blackberries, but Sidekicks have email, web browsing, a calendar, address book, a space for taking notes, text messaging (via phone), and instant messaging (aol and I think one or two other instant messaging plans), etc. Tmobile (which sells these) has a data-only plan if you just want the email/web browsing/text messaging without the voice phone component. (They implemented a data-only plan as an accommodation for deaf people, which is why nearly all deaf people I know have either a Sidekick or a blackberry. But my hearing partner for one is on a data-only plan too simply because she doesn’t really use the phone that much — she’s too much of an email addict!) Maybe that would work as a compromise until something in between the size of a palm top and a lap top gets invented (which is what I think you’re looking for … I would buy one if it existed too, because even a standard lap top is still not quite as lightweight or as portable as I would like either).
Thank you for the suggestion.
I agree, something such as a blackberry or sidekick is probably what I should be looking at.
Like you, I’d really prefer the happy medium. There are some neat smaller PC’s (see dynamism.com for example), but I really prefer a tablet form factor–that is harder to find in a nice, small size.
Thanks again.