Basic cucumber raita
On my sister’s final night in Saarbruecken I made dosas and an Indian dish with okra and onions. Hanaleah claimed not to like dosas (too spicy) or okra, but she really liked both my dishes. To go along with the dosas, Hanaleah decided to make raita. She started out with this Epicurious recipe for traditional cucumber raita, substituted red onions for the scallions, and added lemon juice and salt. Her raita was excellent, and although the recipe is quite simple, I wanted to remember it, so decided to post it here.
- 1 cup plain yogurt
- 1 cup finely chopped cucumber (unpeeled)
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh cilantro
- 1 Tablespoon finely chopped red onions
- 1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1? Tablespoon lemon juice
- 1/4? tsp. salt
Here’s a raita recipe from the cookbook “Classic Indian Vegetarian and Grain Cooking” by Julie Sahni:
- 1.5 cups plain yogurt, whisked til smooth
- 1 cup peeled, grated cucumber
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1/4 tsp. pepper
- 1/2 tsp. ground roasted cumin for garnish
- 1/4 tsp. paprika for garnish
- cilantro or mint for garnish
She says it can be made 5-6 hours in advance, and makes 4 servings.
I went over to my friend Anusha’s for dinner and she made a really tasty raita. It didn’t have cucumber in it, but it had lots of onions. She gave me her recipe:
- 3 onions, chopped
- 1 pinch black salt
- 1-3 tsp. lemon juice
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1.5 cups yogurt [depends on how thick you want it to be]
- 1/2 tomato, chopped
- 1/2 tsp. dried parsley
Hanaleah said,
December 12, 2009 at 11:57 pm
Made this last night again. I like it…but then again it is my recipe. Where is your rating?
captious said,
December 13, 2009 at 12:17 am
I don’t remember. I’ll have to make it again and then post a rating. I’m making black bean and sweet potato burritos on Tuesday. Do you think it would go with them?
captious said,
March 21, 2010 at 11:41 pm
I made this today using 1/4 tsp. salt and 1 Tbs. lemon juice, and it was good, but not great. It tasted underseasoned.