Falooda and the Basil seeds

Name: Falooda and the Basil seeds
Prep time: 5 min
Total time: 5 min
Ingredients: 250 mililiter Milk; 1 Teaspoon Basil Seeds - presoaked; Raspberry Syrup; 1 Scoop Strawberry parfait

March 2, 2012 by Helene Dsouza 45 Comments

Falooda #stepbystep #recipe masalaherb.com

Discovering new things, gaining knowledge is always of value.

I am fortunate enough to have a vast circle of interests and to hold them in high regard, though it wasn’t always like that.

Even I had my times were I lived in a narrow mind, eyes shut, praising only the commercial, “cool”world.

For example, I seriously thought that those colorful bought socks were better then the home made wool socks which my grandmother make.

She would first harvest from the sheep’s wool, then hand spun it with her spinning wheel and at last knit.

These handmade socks were a bit scratchy in the beginning but that would fade after washing.

The socks were so warming, they became my ultimate cold savior!

What do you grow in your home garden?

Because of my teenage foolishness I missed precious learning and discovering time.

I was totally detached to nature, but as fate willed it I came back to my roots, to my senses.

My husband and I finally got to live together and we got a garden!

Since we have the freedom to plant whatever we fancied, we discovered new little wonders which brought us lots of pleasure.

That was the case with our Tulsi bush, I have a picture of Tulsi in my “Sweet Lassi day” post.

Tulsi is known as holy Basil, the normal Basil and Tulsi are kind of brothers but they smell differently and look a bit differently.

Did you know you can cook with Basil seeds?

What I didn’t know was that in south Asia it was common to use the seeds in cooking.

It was also used when health issues would arise, like digestion problems.

Interestingly those seeds are not just simple grains.

Add them into some drinking water and you will witness a strange change.

After just a minute in the water, a transparent jelly layer “grows” around the black seed which might remind one of tapioca.

They are jelly like on the outside and crunchy inside.

One could easily fool somebody by pretending those where frog spawns.

I am not sure if the same works with the common Basil like the one in Europe.

But there seem to be different types and sizes with some having more jelly around them then others.

They are known here around too as sabza, tukmaria or falooda grains.

Your falooda or mine?

My husbands 11 year old cousin knew a splendid recipe which called for the basil seeds.

She happily showed me her favorite cooling summer drink called Falooda.

Some of you will know Falooda since it is a popular drink in South Asia.

While researching online I found that the Falooda we know differed in many ways to the original.

Some would know the core ingredients include vermicelli and Rose Syrup together with the tukmaria seeds.

Again of course I had to add my touch to the recipe and switched from another main ingredient, kulfi ice cream, to Strawberry Parfait.

I had some more left after making a batch for Valentines day.

It all fits taste wise perfectly and with my recipe you can now participate in the Falooda craze! 😉

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