It is made with plain yogurt, cucumber, mint leaves and a few basic Indian spice powders. This cucumber raita is the most popular among many other varieties like onion raita, vegetable raita, boondi raita, etc.
❤️About This Cucumber Raita Recipe
Super quick to make: It takes only 10 minutes (from prepping to mixing into yogurt). No cooking required: Yes, the method can’t be simpler than this. Grate cucumber, chop herbs and mix with yogurt along with a few spices. A side dish for hot weather: Because yogurt has a cooling property, raita is usually consumed during the summer season.
🧾Ingredient Notes
To make delicious homemade raita, you’ll need only 7 ingredients (plus salt). All of them are very basic to Indian cooking.
Mild, refreshing and cooling. Cucumber and yogurt both have cooling properties. So cucumber raita is mostly served with spicy biryani or any meal that has spicy curry. This raita is soothing to your palate by toning down the heat. This also helps in easy digestion. So during the summer season, it prevents indigestion, bloating and constipation.
Cucumber: Plain yogurt: Use fresh and less sour plain yogurt. I always use homemade yogurt.
Choose the ones that are more crunchy and less watery. Plus, choose the ones that have very less seeds in them. My personal favorite is Persian cucumber to make this raita. You can see that in the ingredients pic above. Persian cucumber is around 6 inches long with thin skin, almost no seeds, super crunchy, less watery with a sweet flavor. The second best option is the English cucumber which is almost 1 foot long. It can be more watery than Persian cucumber. Avoid using the ones that have mature seeds. If so, you can scoop out and discard the seeds before grating.
Persian and English cucumbers both have thin skin, so I would not peel them. Sometimes there may be a wax coating on the cucumber. If so I would peel it. If the skin is tough, thick and mature then peel the skin. Most Indian cucumbers have thick skin, in that case, I would peel them.
Mint leaves: It adds a super refreshing flavor. Instead, you can use cilantro as well. Black salt (Kala namak): It adds a unique zing to the raita. Please do not skip it. Roasted cumin powder: This is the must-add spice powder for any raita. It adds a nice flavor to the dish as well as helps in easy digestion. Red chili powder and Black pepper: A tiny pinch of both spices is added just to elevate the flavor.
👩🍳How To Make Cucumber Raita? (Stepwise Photos)
💭Expert Tips
Always use chilled, refrigerated yogurt, as raita tastes best when served chilled. If your yogurt is a little sour then add a pinch of sugar to balance the flavor. We don’t want sweet raita so just add enough to balance the sourness. Storing cucumber raita for more than a day (24 hours) is not advisable. Cucumber will leave its water after storing and it makes the raita watery and runny. Plus, cucumber will lose its crunch and freshness. If you do not care for consistency or the crunchiness of the cucumber then raita can be stored for 2 days in the refrigerator. Make ahead option: If you want to make it ahead of time for guests or parties then mix the spices with yogurt and store that in an airtight container. Grate the cucumber and store that separately in the fridge. At the time of serving, drain the cucumber water collected at the bottom of the container then mix cucumber and spiced yogurt together and serve.
🍽 Serving Ideas
Serve cucumber raita with veg biryani or spicy veg pulao or any rice dish like capsicum rice, methi rice. This can be served as a side with your Indian meal (that consists of dal, rice, roti, sabzi or curry). It can be used as a dipping side for your paratha like aloo paratha, broccoli paratha, vegetable paratha.
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