Vegan Mango Lassi

This vegan mango lassi is very simple, and dairy free, but it tastes just like it should – light and dreamy and a little spicy. The recipe only calls for a maximum of five ingredients so make sure that you’re using your favourites of everything that’s going in it.

Get a good mango, your favourite yogurt, and use whole cardamom pods if you can (which is always better anyway). You can use ataulfo mangos – the small yellow ones – or a more common green mango (usually Kent). Let it get really ripe before making this recipe and you shouldn’t need any extra sweetener.

If you’re not familiar with lassi, it’s a yogurt based drink that originated in the Punjab region in India. Traditionally it’s salty, rather than sweet, but sweet versions (with additions like rose, saffron, or mango, like this one) are popular. So make yourself a good curry, a batch of vegan naan, and a lassi to go with it instead of ordering in!

Ingredients

Ingredient Notes and Substitutions

• Coconut yogurt: Coconut yogurt is best here – it’s an obvious pairing – but other non-dairy yogurts are good too. Oat, almond, whatever your favourite is. There is a recipe in the Occasionally Eggs cookbook for homemade coconut yogurt.
• Cardamom: cardamom is classic, and I always recommend fresh cardamom rather than ground. Like nutmeg and pepper, pre-ground cardamom is not great. You can use other spices, like vanilla or ginger, if preferred.
• Mango: the recipe calls for fresh mango, but frozen is good if you can’t get fresh. You will likely need to thin the lassi out with some water or non-dairy milk if you use frozen mango. I order mangoes from crowdfarming when they’re in season in Europe.

Step by Step

1. Prepare: peel the mango and add to a blender (or mixing container) with the yogurt and cardamom.
2. Blend: mix on high speed until very smooth, thin with needed, and serve.

Recipe Notes

If the lassi is too thick, you can thin it out with a bit of cold water until it’s the consistency you like. It should really be a bit thinner than it is pictured, but this particular one was quite cold when I took the photos because my mango was in the refrigerator. It thinned out when it came to room temperature.

If you have an ultra high-speed blender, you can probably chuck the whole cardamom seeds in without grinding them ahead of time. Otherwise, use a mortar and pestle or, my old method, the back of a spoon on a hard surface.

I use an immersion blender, but any type of blender will work for this as mango is so soft. If you find that your blender is leaving chunks or stringy bits behind, it’s probably the type of mango you’re using, so I recommend seeking out a mango variety that doesn’t have such noticeable fibres.

Keep in mind that lassi is a yogurt drink, not a mango drink, and so there is more of a yogurt flavour than you’d get in a fruit smoothie. It tastes a bit like mango yogurt, really. This doesn’t keep very well after mixing so I don’t recommend storing it in the refrigerator for any length of time.

Expert Tips

• Spice to taste: in this case, add the amount of cardamom you like, which may be less or more depending on your personal taste and the age and variety of cardamom used.
• Serve at room temperature: lassi is usually served at or near room temperature, and I think it tastes best that way – if you want it cold, use frozen mango.

More Refreshing Drinks

Strawberry Watermelon Juice
Blueberry Peanut Butter Smoothie
Strawberry Slush
Orange Ginger Beer Sparklers

If you make this Vegan Mango Lassi or any other dairy-free drink recipes on Occasionally Eggs, please take a moment to rate the recipe and leave a comment below. It’s such a help to others who want to try the recipe. For more OE, follow along on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest, purchase the Occasionally Eggs cookbook, or subscribe for new posts via email.