Onion-cucumber raita

Raita is an Indian dish made with yogurt, spice powders, herbs, veggies like onion, cucumber, and carrot. 

It’s a simple, fifteen-minute recipe, and has so many variations, it can become spicy or plain, sweet or savory. It’s an integral part of regional thalis; side dish for pulao, biryani, kebabs, or stuffed parathas. Raita is generally made to tone down the heat of the spicy foods like biriyani or kebabs, as yogurt, cucumber, and mint have a cooling effect it balances out the spicy food and helps digestion.

I like to keep my raita thick and add lots of veggies so that you get them with every bite.

When it comes to the choice of vegetables and fruits, there's no end to the options, you can choose any seasonal favorite and use it in the raita.

In fruits, our favorite is pineapple, before adding the pineapple cubes to raita, just caramelize them a little bit with sugar.

This recipe is the easiest variety with finely chopped cucumber, onion, and coriander leaves. Along with that my friend Rupal adds roasted and coarsely grinded cumin, that really tastes yummy 😋. If she is around, then its mandatory for her to make raita.

Ingredients

• 2 cups thick plain curd/yogurt, straight out from the fridge, I like my raita chilled
• 1 tbsp rock salt
• 1 tsp roasted cumin seeds
• 1 green chili, finely chopped (optional, you can increase or decrease as per your choice, I completely omitted it)
• 1 small onion finely chopped
• An equal amount of finely chopped cucumber
• 1 small tomato, finely chopped (optional, in this preparation, I didn’t use)
• 3 tbsp fresh coriander leaves, finely chopped

 Method

• Take out the chilled curd and beat well
• Wash and chop the veggies
• Mix all the chopped veggies with beaten curd, add little water if you want to make the consistency a little thin, I like it thick so I didn’t add water
• Add rock salt and roasted cumin seeds, mix well

You can sprinkle a little roasted cumin powder on top as well, as Rupal does, thank you Rupal for making it so delicious 😀

Your favorite raita is ready to be served with pulao or veg tehri or biriyani 😊😊