Chunky Zucchini and Tomato Raita

Some of you may wonder how one can eat the hot and spicy Indian dishes. Well here is one secret, Indian cuisine uses a lot of yoghurt and yoghurt based accompaniments with most of the hot spicy main dishes. Raita is one such side dish or sauce that is very traditional north Indian side with many rice dishes as the hot and spicy Biryani, fried rice, or pulaos. This is very cooling, mellow creamy sauce made in yoghurt base with zuchhini, tomatoes onions and herbs. Besides yoghurt as we all know has the much needed calcium which is another reason we should enjoy this in the most tasty form.  Here is a very simple and zesty Raita for a quick fix side, you can enjoy with a hot rice dish or even naan. The procedure to make is also simple and does not need a lot of preparation and more so there is no cooking involved.

Ingredients:
1 zucchini -grated or cut to thinly sliced
2 small tomato – thinly cut
1 small onion –thinly sliced
2 cups plain yoghurt
Salt to taste
1 twig –cilantro leaves
2 tsp lemon juice

Method:
Mix grated zucchini tomato onions, in the yoghurt. Adjust the salt and stir in the lemon juice. Mix well, garnish with cilantro and serve


Serving suggestion: Serve with pulao, fried rice or chapathi

There are various other more sophisticated versions of raita and i will cover those another time.