Raita | Recipe for Raita | yogurt with herbs

There can be many variations of Raita or yogurt dip. Raita is basically yogurt with everyday kitchen herbs. It is made from yogurt as main ingredients, then onion, cilantro or coriander, fresh mint leaves salt and pepper. Raita has a very refreshing taste and look. It gives a great look and taste only with basic kitchen condiments. It is served essentially with many rice dishes as gram pulao, chicken pulao, Chicken biryani, Fried spicy Chicken, a variety of nan recipes like mincemeat naan and potato-filled naans etc.

Raita can be made with several ingredients or just a few by adding some flavouring to the yogurt.

For the basic raita recipe, you will need:

Ingredients for basic raita recipe

1 cup of yogurt

1 tabs chopped onion

1/2 tsp roasted and crushed cumin seeds

1/2 tsp roasted coriander seeds(crush with fingers)

2 tabs fresh coriander leaves(finely chopped)

2 tabs fresh mint leaves

salt to taste

and 1/4 tsp pepper

Raita recipe

• Mix all ingredients well in the yogurt raita.
• Garnish with some coriander and mint leaves on the top.

Variations in the raita

• Apart from adding the basic condiment to the yogurt, you can add one boiled and diced potato(quite a popular riata recipe) as well. 
• Add cucumber(diced)
• A solid ripe red tomato can also be added to the raita for colour and enhanced taste. For one cup of yogurt raita recipe, you can use a small red tomato or half if it is medium or large.
• There is one raita recipe that is lauki or bottle gourd raita. The gourd is grated and steamed to cook through fully and make tender. Then added to the yogurt when it is cool and not steaming. It gives a great taste with salt and pepper in yogurt raita. You can omit onions and tomatoes for this recipe if you want.
• You can also chop or mince a mixture of coriander and mint and freeze it in the form of cubes in the refrigerator. Put one cube in the yogurt and add salt, pepper, and cumin seeds for a quick raita.

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