Spiced Raita - chatpata raita

A raita is a side dish made of Yogurt mixed with diced vegetables like cucumber, tomato, onion or carrot spiced with green chilies for any briyani or rice varities. Is there any Indian who does not like Raita? Hmm, I need to count with my fingers! Another wonderful way to use this dish would be to have the raita as a dip for your items. Yogurt with spices makes it an amazing combination as a dip sauce.

Adding the spice powders to the raita is very much optional but it gives a new dimension to the whole dish. In my recent raita recipe, I decided to add some spice powders to give it a nice spicy combination.

I love my Indian spices and my cooking is not complete without them. They add a lot more flavors to the dish and make it yum. This raita goes well with any rice combination or even when you want to have it alone. Go ahead and try this to get the taste of the chatpata raita (means spicy raita). I have added Tomato and cucumber to this raita to keep it simple and balance the spices.

Servings: 2-3

Time to make: 10 minutes

Ingredients needed:

Diced vegetables - 1/2 cup (I added 1 normal cucumber and 15 baby tomatoes)

Red chili powder - 1/8 tsp ( or even less, may be a pinch)

Chat masala - 1/2 tsp

Jeera powder - 1/2 tsp

Yogurt - 250ml

Salt to taste

Coriander leaves - for garnishing

Recipe:

1. Dice the vegetables as per desired shape and mix them together

2. Add the yogurt and mix it with the vegetables. 

3. Next add the salt and the spice mixtures except the Red chili powder. Give a nice stir.

4. Garnish on top with the red chili powder and coriander leaves.

This is very simple to make but tastes heavenly. Try this and your family will definitely like it. The chat masala powder gives a nice tangy taste to the raita. The red chili powder gives the required hint of spiciness to the Yogurt. 

As an optional method, you may skip the red chili powder but substitute with green chilies as well. More spiciness!

Enjoy the raita with any rice/briyani. I tried it with my vegetable coconut milk briyani and it was a hit in my home.