Carrot and Cucumber Raita: a creamy, cooling, Indian yogurt based condiment made with carrots, cucumbers, and spices.
What is Raita?
Raita is a popular Indian side dish or a condiment made by combining thick yogurt with different fruits, vegetables, and spices, so it can be either sweet or savory and spicy. There’s no one way to make raita, recipes vary from region to region, family to family, and season to season. That said, it’s always made with yogurt, usually full fat, spices, and some kind of fruit or vegetable. Some people finish the raita with a handful of fresh herbs or a tempering of oil and spices.
Did you know?
The name of the dish comes from two Sanskrit words: rajika, meaning black mustard, and tiktaka, meaning spicy. Raita’s origins can be traced back to the 19th century. Some of the most common types of raita today are boondi ka raita, cucumber raita, pineapple raita, and aloo raita. I love combining different additions to raita depending on what I’m serving it with.
This cucumber carrot raita is cool, crunchy and I love the balance of flavor with the sweet carrots and floral kadi pata.
Raita is often served with main dishes such as biryanis, pooris, and kebabs, where it is consumed both as a cooling agent and its spicy, contradictory counterpart.
Carrot and Cucumber Raita Ingredients
- Plain yogurt: use whole milk yogurt, for its rich and creamy flavor.
- English cucumber: washed and grated, no need to remove the excess water, it helps to add moisture to the raita without having to water it down.
- Carrot: peeled and grated. This adds a wonderful and unexpected sweet crunch.
- Oil or ghee: to temper the spices. You only need a small amount.
- Spices: Rai for raita of course, black mustard seeds. Jeera/Whole Cumin, this adds a perfect smokiness. Kadi patta; Indian Curry leaves, the floral and herbaceous addition truly adds a wonderful depth of flavor to the raita.
- A split chili: tempering a chili spices up the oil a bit and give the raita a perfect kick.
- Salt: helps to enhance all the flavors and spices.
- Cilantro or fresh herbs: brings a freshness to this cool condiment.
- 2 cup plain yogurt
- 1 cup grated cucumber
- ½ cup grated carrot
- 1 tablespoon melted ghee or oil
- 1-2 green chilies; serranos or birds eye; split
- 7-8 kadi pata/ curry leaves
- ½ teaspoon jeera / whole cumin seeds
- ¼ teaspoon rai / black mustard seeds
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoon cilantro; chopped (or fresh herbs of choice)
- Whisk the yogurt in a large serving bowl.
- Mix in the grated cucumbers and carrots.
- In a small frying pan heat the ghee, once melted add the split chili.
- Once the split chili starts to expand and roast, add the rai (black mustard seeds), jeera (whole cumin), and kadi pata. This will crackle and pop.
- Turn off the heat and add this mixture to the yogurt mixture.
- Mix and garnish with chopped cilantro and salt.
- Serve cold.
Enjoy,
