Rose falooda recipe with rose sharbat
Rose falooda at home: sabja seeds, falooda sev, rose milk and ice cream. Made with clear rose sharbat, so it is white, not pink — and why that is.
The short answer
Rose falooda is a layered drink-dessert: soaked sabja seeds, soft falooda sev and rose syrup at the bottom, rose-flavoured cold milk in the middle, and a scoop of ice cream on top. Made with our clear rose sharbat it tastes properly of rose but stays white, not pink, because no colour is added. It takes about 15 minutes of work, plus half an hour for the seeds to soak.
About the colour
Most falooda you see is bright pink because the rose syrup used in it has colour added. Our Clear Rose Sharbat is rose water and mishri syrup only, so it is clear, and your falooda will be the colour of milk with a few flecks of green from the pistachios. If you want a blush of pink, a teaspoon of beetroot juice per glass will do it, though it adds a faint earthy note. A spoonful of gulkand at the bottom also gives a little colour and texture. Clear or red sharbat: what the colour tells you
Ingredients
• 2 teaspoons sabja (sweet basil) seeds
• 30 g falooda sev (or thin cornflour vermicelli)
• 80 ml clear rose sharbat
• 400 ml chilled full-fat milk
• 2 scoops vanilla ice cream
• 2 teaspoons rose gulkand (optional)
• Chopped pistachios and almonds, to finish
• Ice
Method
1. Soak the sabja seeds in a cup of water for 20–30 minutes, until each seed is surrounded by a soft, clear gel. Drain.
2. Boil the falooda sev in water until soft, usually 3–5 minutes (check the packet), then drain and rinse under cold water.
3. Stir 60 ml of the rose sharbat into the chilled milk.
4. In each glass, put a spoonful of sabja seeds, a teaspoon of gulkand if using, and half the falooda sev.
5. Drizzle 10 ml of rose sharbat into each glass, add a little ice, and pour in the rose milk.
6. Top each glass with a scoop of ice cream and the chopped nuts. Serve with a long spoon and a straw.
Tips
• Soak the seeds properly. Sabja seeds that have not swollen fully are crunchy and gritty. They are ready when each seed sits in a ring of clear jelly.
• Rinse the sev in cold water. It stops the strands cooking further and sticking together.
• Keep everything cold. Chill the glasses and the milk; falooda goes flat as soon as it warms.
• Adjust the sweetness at the rose-milk stage. 30 ml of sharbat per 200 ml of milk is the starting point; add more for a sweeter falooda.
• Kulfi instead of ice cream makes a richer kulfi falooda. Gulkand kulfi recipe
Making it for a crowd
Soak the seeds, cook the sev and mix the rose milk ahead, and keep each in the fridge. Assemble glasses only when you serve, so the ice cream does not melt into the milk. One 350 ml bottle of sharbat goes a long way: at 40 ml a glass it makes about eight. Falooda is a sweet dessert, so it is a treat rather than an everyday drink, and people with diabetes should keep that in mind.
For more ways to use the same bottle, see five ways to serve rose sharbat and the rose sharbat lemonade. Made with our Clear Rose Sharbat and Rose Gulkand; delivery is a flat ₹39 anywhere in India.
Buy from the Haldighati valley
- Rose Gulkand — Sun-cured Damask rose petal preserve. 470 g, ₹449.
- Clear Rose Sharbat — Rose water and mishri, no added colour. 350 ml, ₹349.