Kesar Kheer
Slow-simmered rice pudding turned festive gold with saffron. Kheer is the dish that turns up at every celebration — Diwali, weddings, a Sunday that just needs something sweet. Saffron gives it both its colour and its unmistakable aroma.
Ingredients
- 1 litre full-fat milk
- 1/4 cup basmati rice, rinsed and soaked 20 minutes
- 15 Baby Saffron threads, bloomed in 2 tbsp warm milk
- 1/3 cup sugar, to taste
- 3 green cardamom pods, crushed
- 2 tbsp mixed almonds and pistachios, slivered
- 1 tbsp raisins (optional)
Method
- 1
Bring the milk to a gentle boil in a heavy-bottomed pan, then lower to a simmer.
- 2
Drain the rice and add it with the crushed cardamom. Simmer, stirring often, for 30–35 minutes until the rice is soft and the milk has thickened.
- 3
Stir in the sugar and cook for 5 more minutes until dissolved.
- 4
Add the bloomed saffron with its milk, plus most of the nuts and the raisins. Simmer 5 minutes more.
- 5
Serve warm or chilled, topped with the remaining nuts and a few saffron threads.
Add the bloomed saffron in the last 10 minutes, not at the start — long boiling dulls its aroma. A late addition keeps the fragrance bright right up to serving.
More saffron recipes
You'll need saffron
A pinch is all this takes. Lab-graded threads, sealed at source.
BestsellerEveryday premium saffron for milk, sweets, and rituals.
ISO Grade 1 · 200+ colour
Sold as a set of 4 single-use 250mg blisters of pure kesar.
ISO Grade 1 · 200+ colour
