This carrot raita is another simple, easy, and refreshing accompaniment made with yoghurt, carrots, green chillies, and a few spices. Gajar ka raita is from the Punjabi cuisine.
Raita is the best thing to serve beside hot dishes for its palate calming and refreshing qualities.
Raita is a salad of vegetables in yoghurt. For most raitas there two approaches to preparing the vegetables. One is to chop them, and the other is to grate them. Our usual method is to chop the vegetables, but for this dish, we find that grating them is better.
There are several raita recipes in this cookbook. We serve a raita with most meals, except those that already have yoghurt, such as korma dishes.
Although this dish has a green chilli, it is not meant to be hot. The technique of deseeding and removing the white pith will remove most of the heat but retains the chilli flavour. How much of the pith and seeds you remove will dictate the heat. You want some, but not a lot of heat.
This recipe requires black salt, which is available from Indian grocers. It provides the taste you often find in snack and street foods. It is an important part of this dish. If unobtainable, substitute with regular table salt.
The tempering with asafoetida before serving provides an interesting flavour lift.
We serve this raita with dal and rice dishes.
the recipe
ingredients
- 2 carrots - grated
- 1 green chilli
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 300 ml yoghurt
- ½ tsp garam masala
- ½ tsp black salt - see notes
to temper
- 1 tsp ghee
- ¼ tsp asafoetida powder
instructions
- Place a small frypan on medium heat and add the cumin seeds. Toast them until they darken and become aromatic, then remove them from the heat. When cool enough to handle, grind to a fine powder. Set aside.
- Remove the stalk from the green chilli and slice lengthways into halves. Carefully scrape out the seeds and white pith, and discard. Finely slice the green chilli.
- Place the yoghurt in a small bowl and whisk until smooth.
- Add the carrots, reserving some for garnishing, and the chopped green chilli. Mix well.
- Add the ground cumin seeds, garam masala and black salt. Mix well.
- Cover, and refrigerate until ready to serve.
to serve
- Heat the ghee in a small pan. Tilt the pan to keep the ghee contained in a small puddle, then add the asafoetida. Heat for just a few seconds, then pour over the raita.
- Garnish with the reserved carrot and serve.
notes
- Removing the seeds and pith from the green chilli will remove most of its heat.
- Black salt is available from Indian grocers. If unobtainable use regular table salt.
private notes
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