Falooda is a delicious dessert/drink of milk, sweet noodles and basil seeds, that is popular in South Asia, the Middle East and in parts of South East Asia.
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
What is Falooda?
Falooda doesn’t need any introduction to many. It’s a cold drink/dessert popular in India, Pakistan, Singapore, Malaysia and parts of the Middle East. Served either just as a drink or as an ice cream float, it is extremely pretty to look at and tastes even better! And I’ve been informed by a reader that in Mauritius, it is known as Aloodah.
Falooda is believed to be yet another Persian culinary legacy via the Moghuls. Are we even surprised at that anymore? The Persian’s Faloodeh/Faludeh goes as far back as 400BC, during the reign of Artaxexes II but this original version was a dessert of cornflour vermicelli noodles with a semi frozen rose syrup. Pretty similar to today’s version, as you will see.
Where to get Flaooda Sev?
The South Asian Falooda is also made with said cornflour noodles called Falooda Sev, easily found in shops specialising in Indian foods. I have, on many occasions, just used standard rice vermicelli that are used for other Indian desserts. If you have an Indian grocer near you, take a wander through and see if you can spot them. Or just ask the shopkeeper!
Of course, if you don’t, go online! Here in the UK, we not only have fantastic online specialist shops but Amazon and Ebay stores are also great options for “exotic” stuff. This is the one I get on Amazon.
What is different in the South Asian Falooda recipe that I present to you today is the addition of milk and Holy Basil seeds. The basil seeds, also known as tukmaria and subja seeds (selasih in Malay and Indonesian – being multilingual has its advantages!), are soaked for a couple of hours before being used, to allow them to soften and take on a gelatinous texture which blends in well with the rest of the falooda ingredients. At this stage, I’m afraid they resemble frog spawn! I’m not kidding! Basil seeds, you should be able to get at health stores, near the in trend chia seeds.
Similar desserts to Falooda can be found all over Asia, from the Singaporean/Malaysian Chendol to the Thai Nam Manglak, they all bear a slight kinship with with one another.
Rose Syrup Recipe (Falooda Syrup)
If you can’t find any rose syrup, make your own! Here on LinsFood, we have 2 recipes, one uses real roses, the other, is our Cheat’s Rose Syrup, using rose water, or pure essential oil of geranium/rose.
Optional Falooda Ingredients/Serving Ideas
Make some rose syrup jelly. Follow the instructions on your gelatine or agar agar packet with some diluted rose syrup. Pour the liquid rose syrup into your serving glasses and leave to set in the fridge. Then pour the falooda mix over when the milk is cold. That’s what you see in the images here.
Add the noodles, basil seeds and rose syrup into the hot milk and leave to cool. The noodles will absorb the flavours and taste even better.
Add some raisins to the hot milk and leave to plump up as the milk cools.
This needs a little advance prep as you need to cook the milk, then chill it, which will take about 4-6 hours, depending on the amount. The larger the serving, the longer it will take. I like to soak the seeds for a couple of hours too.
If you like the recipe, don’t forget to leave me a comment and that all important, 5-star rating! Thank you!
And if you make the recipe, share it on any platform and tag me @azlinbloor, and hashtag it #linsfood
Lin xx
Falooda Recipe
Equipment
- saucepan
- bowls as needed
- ladle and spoons
- 2 x 300ml (1 ¼ cup) serving glasses/wine glasses
Ingredients
- 2 tsp holy basil seeds
- 1 handful Falooda sev/vermicelli for Indian desserts
- 500 ml fresh whole milk semi skimmed will work too
- 2 Tbsp white sugar
- 2 cardamoms split
- 2 Tbsp rose syrup shop bought or homemade, click for the cheat's version
- 2 scoops vanilla ice cream
- crushed toasted pistachios or almonds
- crushed, edible rose petals optional
Instructions
Prep the sweetened milk
- Place the milk, sugar and cardamom in a small pan and bring to a boil, keeping a close eye on it, as it will suddenly rise.
- Cook on a gentle simmer for 15 minutes.
- Scoop the cardamom skin out and pour the milk into a fresh bowl/jug. The cardamom seeds will be at the bottom of the pan for easy removal. Place in the fridge to chill for at least 4 hours.
Basil Seeds (halfway through the milk chilling)
- Soak the basil seeds at room temperature water for 2 hours.
Falooda Sev (the noodles)
- To soften the sev/vermicelli, cook in simmering water for 5 minutes, drain and set aside.
ASSEMBLY – 2 methods:
Add everything separately
- Essentially, we'll divide everything up into 2 and add them to the serving glasses.
- Place a tsp of seeds into each glass.
- Divide the sev into the 2 glasses too.
- Pour 1 tsp of rose syrup over the sev in each glass.
- Gently, pour the milk into the glass, not quite to the top. Pouring the milk over the back of a tsp ensures as little disturbance to the syrup as possible.
- Top with a scoop of ice cream.
- Scatter some nuts and rose petals.
Mixing everything together as in the picture
- Add the noodles, the basil seeds and the rose syrup to the milk and stir well.
- Divide the mix into 2 glasses.
- Top with ice cream.
- Scatter the nuts and rose petals all over the top.
- Serve immediately.
Mauritius, my Birthplace, has ‘ Alooda ‘ with similar ingredients, presumably adopted with the arrival of indentured Indian workers during the 1830’s/1840’s.
Hey Raouf, that is very interesting, thank you for telling me. I’ll add that to the information above. x
How many total servings in this recipe?
Hi Sheema, it serves 2. I’ve updated the recipe card from the old one, it shows all the information now.
Thank you, Azlin. I don’t usually leave reviews but I wanted to tell you that I made your recipe yesterday, for lunch with friends. It was a big hit, and so far, the best falooda recipe I have tried. Merci!
Thank you! I’m so glad that you all enjoyed it and thank you for your lovely words and taking the time to leave a review!
Gorgeous looking faloodas:)Faloodas are a common drink/dessert at out place. Easy to put together and full of flavors.. delicious:)
Thank you Shubha, funnily enough they only get made during ramadan for us!!
Hi, I am Kenyan and we also have falooda! and we make it just like this!! Just need to add the rose petals and wow my family lol . I guess we borrowed it from the Indian Traders
That’s just awesome, pleased to meet you! To my knowledge, there was quite an influx of Indians to Kenya during the late 19th century, so that would explain it! x
This is not a recipe with which I am familiar. Love all of the ingredients, especially pistachios and it seems simple to make. We enjoy trying new recipes so this will go into the “to try” file!
Thank you Ellen, do let me know if you make it!
This is such a beautiful shade of pink! I’ve never even heard of some of the spices you’ve mentioned — I’m wondering if there is an online source for them.
Online is what I usually do for difficult to get “exotic” ingredients! Thanks Lisa.
This looks so so pretty, and delicious!
Thank you Marsha!
This is a beautiful dessert! I will have to see if I can find these ingredients in my area. Cardamon is one of my favorite spices!
Thank you, let me know if you do attempt it!