Cucumber Raita

Green Cucumber Raita
This is my fav raita. Very easy to make. And because of cucumbers it has a great cooling effect. A perfect summer side dish. I usually make this as a side dish with biryanis or any similar spicy main course.
Recipe:
1 large cucumber, peeled and diced
1 TBS roasted peanut powder
salt to taste
sugar to taste
1/2 lime juice
1 tsp grated coconut
2-3 green chillies, minced
handful of chopped cilantro for garnishing
for tempering:
2 tsp oil
pinch of asafoetida
1 tsp cumin seeds
Preparation:
Peel and dice the cucumber. Add all the ingredients and mix well. Heat a small pot for tempering. Add oil and when hot add asafoetida and cumin seeds. When they start sizzling, turn off the gas and pour the tempering over the mixed cucmber raita. Mix the raita well and serve chilled.
There is another method where you can omit the grated coconut and add 2 TBS of yogurt. Add more sugar then and omit the lime juice completly. That too taste great with biryanis.
Enjoy
Dipti

Pumpkin Raita

I have no idea how to cook red pumpkin. Except for this Raita and maybe pumpkin bread. I am sure there are other recipes though. My mom used to make this pumpkin raita as an addition to "vaalache birde". Vaal or bitterfield beans as they are know are kind of heavy and gaseous to digest. Pumpkin raita is a perfect complement to those lentils. Infact pumpkin raita is perfect with any main course that is heavy or spicy. This raita is slightly sweet to taste and light to digest. Btw S doesnot like this raita. I have no idea why. I think just because its pumkin thats why. But this dish is very easy to make and highly nutritious.

Recipe:

1 quarter of red pumpkin, but any other seasonal squash will do

1 cup yogurt

salt to taste

sugar to taste

2 green chillies

2 tsp clarified butter

1 tsp cumin

handful cilantro

Preparation:

De-seed and de-skin the pumpkin. chop into bite size pieces and cook them in pressure cooker or a big boiling pot of water till fork tender. If cooking in pressure cooker do not add any water. Remove and set aside at room temperature. Mix the yogurt, salt and sugar to taste. De-seed and mince the green chillies and add to the pumpkin mix. Mash everything coarsely. Tmper the mashed raita mix with hot clarified ghee and cumin seeds. Garnish with chopped cilantro.

Serve either at room temperature or better, cold.

Enjoy with spicy food. The raita should be kind of sweet to taste with little heat from chillies.

Dipti

Kala Chana / Bengal Gram Salad

Kala chana belongs to the family of chick peas. A very delicious, versatile and nutritious pea. I love peas in general and they are a very very good source of proteins. My mom used to make a very good kala channa gravy. Eating this channa in any form evokes those memories. I used to love the gravy so much that I could hardly get through the day and it was very difficult to wait for dinner.

This kala chana salad is a very simple recipe and can be eaten as a midtime snack too. I usually prepare this whenever i make some "boring" food or sandwiches. My duckie loves kala chana and the veggies in it. He sits in his chair and picks up the chana with his little fingers and pops them into his mouth. There are many ways to make this particular dish. This is the simplest one. I will write about the other recipes later.

Recipe:

1 cup bengal gram Soaked over night

1 tomato

1 small onion

1/2 seedless cucumber

1 small boiled potato

fistful of chopped cilantro

1 tsp chaat masal or plain lime juice and salt

pinch of asafoetida

Preparation:

Soak the channa overnight. Next day pressure cook it in as little water as possible along with some asafoetida. Let the cooker cool down completely and then handle the channa. Make sure that the channa is cooked completely. Drain away whatever little water is left. Dice the tomato, mince the onion and cube the potato. cut the cucumber into dices. mix in the channa. Add chaat masala for flavor. If chaat masala is not there then just add plain salt or both salt and dash of lime. Garnish with cilantro and serve cold. This is perfect to take on a picnic.

I love this dish because it is the perfect combination of fibre, proteins and carbs. It can be served as a salad or just something you want to munch on.

Like I said before there are many ways to prepare this dish. You could grill the above veggies and add to this dish, it would taste wonderful. Or heat up some oil, add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, turmeric, red chilli powder, corriander powder, cumin powder , salt and the channa and serve it hot - with or without the veggies.