Cucumber Raitha

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Cucumber Raitha

Summer has officially began. But the Sun god has covered up herself behind the heaviest of grey clouds. Still I am glad that it is SUMMER and the temperature has soared up. Okay unlike last year I won’t complain about the heat because I had enough this winter.

Back in India, I used to eagerly await Summer for 4 reasons, 1. Visit to my parents hometown 2. Mangoes 3. Watermelon 4. Indian cucumbers. Unlike in U.S we don’t get watermelon all around the year and should I talk more about Indian mangoes? If you are a regular reader of this blog you would have know by now how much I love this fruit. Apart from this we used to get tons of fresh cucumber during this season. We do get a special variety of cucumber also known as snake cucumber/snake melon/armenian cucumber.  They are pale green in color and have a very thin skin that it doesn’t require any peeling. It is rigid and tastes sweet. It has such a cooling effect and helps to beat the Indian heat (> 100 F and I am not kidding) . My mom used to cut it in slices and serve it with a simple spice mix made from salt and red chili powder. You just need to pick a slice smear it lightly with the spice mix and eat. Heaven!! I am just drooling thinking about it. But this recipe uses regular cucumber as I live thousand miles away from my country and this is the only variety we get here.

Cucumber

How it tasted?

Cucumber raitha heals and soothes you. This is a great summer dish and you can pair it with popular indian dishes like paratha, biriyani, pulav and rotis or just have it as is. We had this with delicious muli paneer parathas and it was one of our best lunches.

Cucumber Raitha

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 5 minutes

Total Time: 15 minutes

Yield: 4 person

Ingredients

  • 1 Cucumber
  • 1 1/2 cup Yogurt
  • 2 Green Chili
  • Handful of Coriander leaves / Cilantro
  • Salt to taste
  • Paprika / Chili Powder a pinch for garnishing

Cooking Instruction

  • Wash cucumber thoroughly in running water. Peel the skin off.
  • Shred cucumber using a shredder.
  • Add finely chopped green chili, salt and yogurt/curd. Mix well.
  • Add chopped coriander leaves and serve.
  • If required sprinkle some paprika or chili powder on top just before serving.

Notes:

If you are serving this dip/raitha to kids, you might not want to chop the green chilies finely. Instead chop them in to two and add it to the raitha. It will be easy for us to discard and serve it to kids.

South Beach Diet:

You can have this soothing yogurt dip right from the phase 1. You can pair it with anything you can think of or eat them as is.

Cucumber Raitha

A glimpse from my kitchen

  • Wash cucumber thoroughly in running water. Peel the skin off.

Cucumber peeled

  • Shred cucumber using a shredder.

Shredded cucumber

  • Add finely chopped green chili, salt and yogurt/curd. Mix well.

Cucumber Raitha

  • Add chopped coriander leaves and serve.

Cucumber Raitha

  • If required sprinkle some paprika or chili powder on top just before serving.

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