Mixed Vegetable Raita...with a twist !

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Raita is a simple Indian salad always made with yogurt, some vegetables or any particular vegetable of choice and some simple seasoning. It tastes great when paired with pulao or biryani. If you want to add a salad to an Indian meal you cannot go wrong with raita. This dish features regularly in my kitchen and I never gave any thought to varying the usual recipe. Recently my mother in law was here with us and she mentioned to me that sometimes split gram lentil (also known as udad dhal) is roasted, powdered and added to the raita to give it a different flavor.

Her version of raita piqued my interest and I could not wait to try it the next time I was planning pulao and raita for lunch. This seemingly simple and slight variation really adds an interesting flavor to the raita and a touch of creaminess that really enhanced the raita. In addition when I tasted the yogurt with the powdered lentil in it, just before adding the vegetables, the yogurt taste reminded me of dahi vada (fried black gram lentil fritters soaked in yogurt). Of course once the vegetables are added this strong resemblance in watered down quite a bit. But anything that ever reminds me of dahi vada no matter how slight, wins my approval in the taste department, so this one is definitely a winner in my book :-)





Here is another view of the Raita.....





Click here for a printable view of this recipe

Ingredients and Method to make Mixed Vegetable Raita

1 small carrot grated
1 large cucumber peeled and cut fine
1 large tomato cut fine
1 1/2 cups plain yogurt (curds/ dahi)

1 tbsp split black gram lentil (udad dhal) (dry roasted until red and ground to a fine powder)


seasoning
1 tsp oil
1/2 tsp mustard seeds (rai/ kadagu)
3 small Thai / Indian variety green chillies (or according to taste) (cut very fine)
pinch of asoafoetida (hing/ perungayam) (optional)

salt according to taste ( I used about 3/4 tsp salt)


Dry roast the split black gram lentil on a medium heat until it starts to turn reddish. Cool thoroughly and powder in your spice grinder until fine.

In a large bowl, add the plain yogurt, the powdered lentil powder, salt to taste and wisk well together until it is smooth.

Heat oil in a small pan, add mustard seeds. When the seeds start to splutter, add finely cut green chillies and the asafoetida and give a mix or two until the green chillies start to change color.

Pour the entire mixture of oil + mustard seeds + green chilli mixture on top of the wisked yogurt and mix well.

In another bowl assemble all the vegetables mentioned above and give it a good mix.

Just before serving add the vegetables to the yogurt mixture and mix well and serve immediately

Notes

If the vegetables are added to yogurt well before time, the raita tends to get a little watery because the juices from cucumber and tomato get released, hence the need to mix it just before serving.