Minty cucumber raita

I love the fragrance of mint, especially fresh mint leaves. And there's nothing like having a small potted plant of mint in your kitchen garden. The evening breeze brings a lovely waft of that wonderfully fresh fragrance. The Jasmine does put up some fierce competition to that though!

I keep looking for opportunities to use mint in my daily cooking, despite the rumours of 'you know what' that surround it! On the other hand, mint has been a part of age old remedies for relieving bad breath, stomach cramps, flatulence, nausea and many more.

Mint tea, mint rice, mint parathas, mint on salads, mint in gravies- I just love it in everything.

Here's a quickie cuke raita flavoured with fresh mint leaves.

Raita is a yogurt accompaniment to rice or is eaten as a salad. This one has cucumbers, fresh mint leaves and the garnish is a delicate sprinkling of fresh grated coconut.


What you will need:

1 1/2 cups fresh yogurt ( should be fairly thick-use homemade or Greek yogurt for more flavour)

2 medium sized cucumbers- peeled and grated
1 T chiffonade mint leaves ( proud to say that these were from my little balcony garden )
Some freshly ground black pepper
Rock salt (regular salt if you don't have rock salt)
1 big green chilli-finely chopped
Whole mint leaves-for garnish
1 T fresh grated coconut-for garnish


Method:

Beat the yogurt with the salt into a smooth consistency. Add the grated cucumbers.
Mix in the 1 T mint leaves, green chillies, salt and ground pepper.
Garnish with the whole mint leaves and coconut.
That is all there is to it.

Serve chilled.


Note:

This recipe will serve 2-3 people.

If you use hung curd for this recipe, you can very well use this, as a dip for crudites or a spread for sandwiches.

Serve it as a side with biryani / pulao

This is my entry for Kalyn's Weekend Herb Blogging.