Skip Kesar! Try This 100-Year-Old Hack Using Parijat Flowers To Add Golden Hue To Kheer

Parijat flowers, commonly known as Harsingar or night-flowering jasmine, have a sweet scent and look pretty. But did you know that these small flowers, with their white petals and orange stems, can be quite useful in adding colour to your kheer? You can use them instead of saffron (kesar), which is quite expensive. Keep reading to know about this amazing hack for the festive season.

Parijat Flowers Can Add A Golden Hue To Your Kheer

 

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A post shared by Tuktuk Agarwaal (@tuktukcooks)

Having a yellowish tint in any Indian dessert, like kheer or rabri, looks luxurious and makes it more appealing. But in most recipes, chefs usually add saffron or kesar to give it that colour. As we all know, saffron is also among the world’s most expensive spices. What if we told you that you could get a similar colour by using the cheaper Parijat flowers instead?

A content creator on Instagram, Tuktuk Agarwaal (@tuktukcooks), shared her great-grandmother’s hack, which is almost 100 years old and is still used by her family. In the olden days, kesar was not readily available in the markets. To bring colour to the kheer, Tuktuk’s great-grandmother used to add Parijat flower stems to give the dessert a golden-yellow hue.

Trying it out herself, Tuktuk simply cut off the orange-coloured stems of the flowers, washed them well and soaked them in some hot milk or water. She let them sit for a few minutes until they released their colour. Surprisingly, the bowl of milk turned a lovely shade of yellow, which the creator then added to the kheer on the stove.

Also Read: From Salty Curry Fixes To 10-Second Garlic Peeling, These Kitchen Hacks Are Game-Changers

These Flowers Can Only Add Colour 

The stems of Parijat flowers add a very natural colour to the dessert, and we were pleasantly surprised. You can also sun-dry the stems and store them for the entire year to use later. This is surely an amazing hack because not everyone can afford expensive kesar for cooking.

There is a reason people often call it ‘poor man’s saffron’. However, keep in mind that Parijat flowers can only replicate the colour that kesar adds to food. They do not offer the distinct, earthy and complex flavour profile of real saffron. Many of Tuktuk’s followers thanked her for the tip. One user wrote that haldi can also be used to bring colour, while another suggested using Parijat in smaller quantities, as overusing it can make the kheer taste bitter.

Also Read: From Using Chopsticks Easily To Spreading Dosa Batter, 7 Kitchen Hacks By Chef Kunal Kapur!

So, this festive season, try this hack and let us know how it turns out!

Cover Image Courtesy: @tuktukcooks/Instagram

Ashmeet Guliani | Content Writer

Ashmeet Guliani is a Content Writer at Curly Tales with over three years of experience writing about food, travel, fashion, and lifestyle. With a B.Sc in Home Economics from the University of Delhi, her interest in reading and writing led her to pursue a career in writing. In her free time, she explores cafes, browses bookstores, listens to Hindi retro songs, and watches K-dramas!