Indian Raita

by Sabrina Snyder

Published on Last updated

20 Comments

5 from 3 votes
4 Servings
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 0 minutes
Total Time 5 minutes
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Easy Indian Raita made with yogurt, cumin, cucumbers and coriander makes a perfectly easy cooling sauce to cover your delicious spicy Indian recipes.

We love serving this Indian Raita made with Butter Chicken, Tikka Masala and Vegetable Biryani because it adds a cooling flavor with a delicious punch from the cumin seeds.

Indian Raita Easy Indian Raita Recipe

A quick and easy Indian Cucumber Raita is one of the most popular side dishes in Indian restaurants. With the spice that you find in most recipes the ability to cool them down with a sauce made from cucumber and yogurt is a popular option.

Indian cooking leans heavily on chilis, spices, ginger and garlic. Even though many recipes have added cream to lighten the flavors they are still so boldly flavored that many restaurants also serve sweet drinks like mango lassi to cool customers’ palates.

Why does dairy help with Spicy food?

Raita includes yogurt with is made from milk. Dairy serves to coat your tongue’s spice receptors that respond to the capsaicin in spicy foods with a protein called casein which binds to the capsaicin to wash away the heat in a recipe.

What to serve with Indian Raita:

Most Indian recipes work well together, this cooling cucumber raita recipe would be great to cool off your favorite spicy Indian recipes like chicken tandoori, rice biryanis, chicken korma or lentil dahls. Naan would also be a delicious side option as would other vegetarian Indian dishes like saag paneer or vegetable korma.

How do you make Indian Raita?

The rice is traditionally made using ghee (clarified butter) along with onions, garlic and ginger. Once cooked vegetables are added in with spices and cooked until the spices bloom. Rice is added along with stock and cooked until fluffy.

Can you skip the cumin seeds? Absolutely. Traditional restaurants include the cumin seeds which soften over time as the raita is refrigerated. Some raita recipes also include chopped cilantro which you could certainly add.

Can you grate the cucumbers? YES. I go for a minced cucumber in this recipe, but many raitas have grated cucumbers which are drained of their excess water before adding to the raita. This helps to preserve the raita for longer in the fridge to eliminate the separation of the yogurt from the cucumbers.

Indian Cucumber Raita

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Dinner, then Dessert

Indian Raita

Easy Indian Raita made with yogurt, cumin, cucumbers and coriander makes a perfectly easy cooling sauce to cover your delicious spicy Indian recipes.
Yield 4 Servings
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 0 minutes
Total Time 5 minutes
Course Sauce
Cuisine Indian
Author Sabrina Snyder
Indian Cucumber Raita
PrintRate

Ingredients
 

  • 1 teaspoon canola oil
  • 1/2 teaspoon whole cumin seeds
  • 1 cup plain yogurt
  • 1/2 cup cucumber , minced finely
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 tablespoon chopped green onions , whites only
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

Instructions

  • In a skillet add the canola oil and heat on high heat.
  • Add in the cumin seeds and cook for 15-20 seconds.
  • In a medium bowl mix all the ingredients together including the cumin seeds and refrigerate for at least 1 hour before serving.

Nutrition

Serving: 1g | Calories: 51kcal | Carbohydrates: 4g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 3g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 8mg | Sodium: 320mg | Potassium: 118mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 3g | Vitamin A: 76IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 74mg | Iron: 1mg

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Indian Raita Recipe
Indian Raita

About the Author: Sabrina Snyder

Sabrina is a professionally trained Private Chef of over 10 years with ServSafe Manager certification in food safety. She creates all the recipes here on Dinner, then Dessert, fueled in no small part by her love for bacon.

Sabrina Snyder is a professionally trained personal and private chef of over 10 years who is the creator and developer of all the recipes on Dinner, then Dessert.

She is also the author of the cookbook Dinner, then Dessert – Satisfying Meals Using Only 3, 5 or 7 Ingredients, published by Harper Collins.

She started Dinner, then Dessert as a business in her office as a lunch service for her coworkers who admired her lunches before going to culinary school and becoming a full time personal chef and private chef.

As a personal chef Sabrina would cook for families one day a week and cook their entire week of dinners. All grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning was done along with instructions on reheating. As a private chef she cooked for private parties and cooked in family homes in the evenings for families on a nightly basis after working as a personal chef during the day.

Sabrina has been certified as a ServSafe Manager since 2007 and was a longstanding member of the USPCA Personal Chef Association including being on the board of the Washington DC Chapter of Chefs in the US Personal Chef Association when they won Chapter of the year.

As a member of the community of food website creators Sabrina Snyder has spoken at many conferences regarding her experiences as a food writer including the Indulge Food Conference, Everything Food Conference, Haven Food Conference and IACP Annual Food Professionals Conference.

Sabrina lives with her family in sunny California.

See more posts by Sabrina

Dinner, then Dessert, Inc. owns the copyright on all images and text and does not allow for its original recipes and pictures to be reproduced anywhere other than at this site unless authorization is given. Read my disclosure and copyright policy. This post may contain affiliate links.

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Comments

  2. Hi Sabrina
    Can you cut the cucumber into coins and just serve this as a kind of cucumber salad?
    I mean, with any dish, Indian or not.
    Mel Heinrichs

    Reply

  3. I love the saag paneer but I don’t eat dairy. Is there any way to make paneer without dairy?

    Reply

  4. I’ve started trying some indian recipes recently and I’m falling in love with this culinary! Every recipe I try turns out amazing! Thanks for sharing this one too =)

    Reply

  6. Last time I ordered Indian, my littlest licked the raita container clean so I should definitely make this for him. It looks perfect.

    Reply

  11. Ohh man I haven’t had raita in a while since my favorite Indian restaurant closed. Can’t wait to try this

    Reply