Raita is a traditional Indian sauce served with all kinds of things. It’s simple and surprisingly tasty. Spoon it onto chana masala, curried red lentil stew, the potato and kale rolls, or anything spicy to cool things down.

When I was doing research for Good and Cheap I volunteered giving tours to families using a WIC center in Bushwick, Brooklyn. We would often stop and talk about yogurt, which was a favorite snack of a lot of the kids. The big tubs of plain yogurt are usually cheaper than buying the little single servings of flavored yogurt, but many still really wanted the convenience of the single serving. We would sometimes share recipes and I and sometimes other people on the tour would share how they flavor the plain yogurt themselves at home. It was wonderful to be able to introduce some people to the idea of making not only sweet kinds of yogurt, but also savory stuff as well like this raita! A tub of plain yogurt is a tub of great potential for many meals while a single serving of blueberry yogurt can only be blueberry yogurt.

Anything Goes Raita

Raita is a delicious easy to make sauce made from adding chopped vegetables and spices to plain yogurt. It is delicious as a topping or dip for all kinds of South Asian food and keeps well in the fridge.

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Course Condiment

Servings 2 cups

Ingredients

  

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• 1 cup cucumber chopped
• 1/2 cup tomato chopped
• 1/4 cup red onion chopped
• 1 cup yogurt
• 1 tsp cumin powder
• 1/2 tsp cayenne powder
• 2 Tbsp fresh cilantro chopped
• Salt and pepper to taste

Additions/Variations

• 1 Tbsp ginger grated
• 2 Tbsp mint
• 1/4 cup chickpeas
• 1/4 cup cooked spinach

Instructions

 

• This recipe is extremely loose. Basically, just stir some of your favorite chopped vegetables into yogurt and add salt and pepper. Use this as a stepping stone to develop your own.
• After you stir all the ingredients together, store the raita in a covered container in the fridge until you’re ready to use it.

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!