Lassi Vs Smoothie: Is There Really A Difference?

You might be familiar with lassis — commonly sold in grocery stores but not as ubiquitous as kefir or smoothies, it's one of the best Indian drinks you should try at least once. But if you think that this brightly colored beverage is the same thing as a smoothie, that's not exactly true. While both lassis and smoothies are creamy and usually fruity drinks, there are distinct differences between the two. While each can be customized with a variety of flavors, the two drinks have very different compositions.

Lassis greatly predates smoothies with a history stretching back to 1000 BC. The popular drink stems from the northern Indian state of Punjab and was originally made by using raw yogurt or curdled milk and adding spices. Smoothies, however, became a popular drink much more recently, in the 1930s, when blenders and freezers became readily available to common households. But what exactly sets one blended drink apart from the other? So while they're both thick, creamy drinks, they have different primary ingredients. And while smoothies can be made with many ingredients, lassi is much more specific.

In smoothies, fruit is the primary ingredient. It doesn't matter what other ingredients you add — such as milk, yogurt, peanut butter, or protein powder — because fresh or frozen fruit still makes up the bulk of the smoothie. For some inspiration, try Tasting Table's most refreshing smoothie recipes. While some frozen fruits, like bananas, create a better, ice cream-like texture, you can use any frozen fruit to make smoothies. Some frozen fruit smoothie blends even include prepared greens to add more vegetables and nutrients to the mix. Because fruit is the more prominent ingredient in smoothies, it naturally sweetens the drink, too.

Lassis, on the other hand, can include fruit to flavor the drink, but it isn't a key ingredient. One of the most common fruits used to flavor a lassi is mango. The sweet yet sharp sourness of the fruit pairs beautifully with the yogurt used in the drink. Other flavors include cardamom and honey, vanilla and saffron, pistachio, and even mint cucumber.

Since fruit is not a vital component of lassi, you might wonder what exactly sets the drink apart. Ultimately, it is yogurt, the base of lassis, that is the key difference between it and a smoothie. While smoothies can contain yogurt, lassi always contains yogurt. One of India's refreshing drinks, lassi comprises yogurt combined with purified water, fruit puree, and spices and sweeteners. There are several options of yogurt you can reach for, though.

A lassi typically calls for Indian yogurt, known as dahi, which is thinner and less sour than Greek yogurt. If you can't find dahi to use in your drink, you can use plain, whole-milk yogurt for a similar result. Just know that you might have to add a bit of milk or cream to keep the lassi from becoming too thick to drink.

So if you typically use both fruit and yogurt in your blended drink, just know that you can tweak the ratio of ingredients to make either a smoothie or a lassi. You can always dial up the spices like cinnamon and cardamom to flavor a lassi.