Light Refreshing Cucumber Raita recipe

Mint and cucumber raita is a popular Indian side dish for dipping appetizers such as poppadoms. If you are looking for sauce recipes or condiments, this cucumber raita recipe is a wonderful dip, which you can serve with various easy party appetizers. This is one of the best known Indian dip recipes.
The cucumber is best sliced really thinly. You can do this with a mandoline or a vegetable peeler. This adds nice texture to this cucumber raita recipe and looks nice also. Use fresh mint for an authentic flavor. The fresh basil is just for garnish so you could omit this ingredient if you do not happen to have basil. Use an extra couple of mint leaves instead.

Mint Cucumber Raita Indian

If you want to know how to make cucumber raita spicy, you can add a little cumin to the recipe. Saying that, however, cucumber raita is usually served alongside spicy food because it's cool and refreshing flavor contrasts nicely and cools your mouth down. The following cucumber raita recipe is simple to make. Do ensure you squeeze as much liquid out of the cucumber as possible because cucumber is more than 90% water and it can dilute the yogurt sauce too much otherwise.

Cucumber Raita Ingredients

2 cups yogurt
1 unpeeled English hothouse cucumber
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
¼ cup chopped fresh mint
Fresh basil, for garnish
Salt
Black pepper

Cucumber Raita Preparation

Halve the cucumber, cut it into thin slices, and squeeze the slices between kitchen paper.
Whisk together the mint, cumin, yogurt, and cayenne pepper.
Add the cucumber, tossing to coat, then season with salt and pepper.
Cover and chill for at least a couple of hours.
You can make it a day ahead if you want to.
Garnish with some fresh basil.

(Serves 8)

Cucumber Raita Recipe

Your guests will be able to see at a glance that this dip is a cucumber raita because of the creamy mixture and the strips of cucumber in it. This appetizing dip is beautiful with lamb kabobs, poppadoms or anything hot and spicy, because the dip is cool and creamy and this is a nice contrast. This is one of our easy party appetizers and if you are serving a selection of dip recipes, as well as any seafood appetizers, hot appetizer recipes or other appetizers for dipping, this is a nice one to feature too.