Cucumber Raita / Perugu Pachadi - Healthy Indian Salad

Today I will share with you a cool salad recipe with yogurt(dahi,perugu) as the base and is a regular salad in Indian meals. Its called Raitha in North India and Pachadi in South India .Pachadis can be eaten as a salad and are usually served along with white rice, biryani and pulao (special Indian rice dishes ).Raita can be made with most vegetables like onions, cucumber, carrots or leafy vegetable.Well you can make raita with most veggies you can ever think of.

Todays recipe is Cucumber raita.Take a bowl and combine 1 cup of chopped cucumber(Kheera), 1/2 cup of chopped onions, salt and 2 cups of whipped curd (yogurt). Make a coarse paste of 2 green chillies and 1 tbsp of grated coconut(optional)and add to the yogurt mixture.You can add 1/2 cup of water if you dont want a thick raita. Garnish with fresh chopped coriander leaves (cilantro).Best served chill.

Well you can add 2 tbsp of grated carrot and 1/2 cup of chopped red tomatoes too for more flavour and color.This is a very healthy salad and good for cooling our system.South Indians season their pachadis. Heat 1 tsp of oil in a pan and add 1/2 tsp of mustard seeds and let them splutter and then some curry leaves (5-6).Remove from fire and add this seasoning to the Pachadi/Raita.

I have compiled a list of some healthy personal recipes of Pachadis /Raitas made of curry leaves, coriander leaves, ridge gourd, coconut, pudina (mint leaves),ginger, tomato, groundnut, garlic, raw mango, brinjal (egg plant), seasame seeds (nuvvulu, til), onion and more veggies here.