Raita recipes | 12 raita varieties for biryani & pulao

Raita recipes – 12 delicious, healthy and refreshing raita recipes to serve wtih biryani, pulao, kebabs or any Indian meal. Without raita, curd or lassi an Indian meal is incomplete.

What is raita?

Raita is an Indian dish made with yogurt, spice powders, herbs & veggies like onions, cucumbers & carrots. Indian raita is usually accompanied with biryani, pulao or kababs. Most often it is made with fresh veggies of choice, mild spice powders like cumin and herbs like coriander leaves & mint leaves.

There are also some varieties made using cooked veggies and even fruits.

A raita is generally made to tone down the heat of the spicy foods like biryani and kebabs. Since yogurt is cooling, it helps to balance the heat from meat and spicy foods.

Also veggies like onion, tomato, cucumber, leafy greens like mint and coriander are cooling to the body. They also help to digest a heavy meal.

Different kinds of raita

Some of the most common raita varieties are onion raita, onion tomato raita, mint raita, cucumber raita and boondi raita.

Some of the uncommon ones like aloo raita, spinach raita and bhindi raita are good to be avoided if accompanying a meat biryani since they do not go well together.

How to make a best raita?

To make a good raita use full fat, thick, fresh & nicely set yogurt/ curd. If you are new to making homemade curd, you can check this post on how to make curd at home. Some raita are made with hung curd or greek yogurt, you can refer this post to make hung curd at home.

Biryani and veg pulao are often made at home, we telugu speaking folks eat lot of spicy and hot food at every meal. We make raita often not only for biryani & pulao but also for plain rice with non-veg curries like chicken curry & mutton curry.

Here are some of the most commonly made raita recipes. Most of these are my own and go very well for our taste. You can also make your own adjustments.

Most of these recipes serve 3 people or 2 grown ups + 2 kids. If making these for kids as well, make the raita without chili. Set the kids portion aside, then add the chopped chilies to the rest.

Related recipes
Chicken biryani
Mutton biryani
Veg biryani

1.Basic raita recipe

2.Boondi raita recipe

Boondi raita is one of the fancy dishes mostly served in restaurants. Bundi or boondi is a crisp fried snack made with gram flour. You can buy it from Indian grocery stores. For this recipe we need boondi that is not spiced.

Ingredients
1 ¼ cup fresh curd / yogurt
¾ to 1 cup boondi
Salt as needed (boondi is salted so use very little)
¼ to ½ tsp roasted cumin powder
2 pinches of red chili powder for garnish
1 tbsp coriander leaves

How to make boondi raita

1. Whisk curd with salt & cumin powder. Add coriander leaves & mix.
2. Transfer the curd to serving bowls.
3. Add boondi to the bowls just before serving.
4. Sprinkle some chilli powder & cumin.

3.Mint raita or mint chutney

This is known by different names as dahi chutney, kebab chutney, kebab raita, mint raita, mint chutney for kebab. These names are purely region or country specific, mostly used in Indian restaurants abroad.

Ingredients
1 cup thick fresh curd / dahi
2 to 3 deseeded green chili
1 cup loosely measured fresh pudina / mint leaves
¼ cup coriander leaves (optional)
2 tsps chopped onion (optional)
1 small garlic clove
¼ tsp grated ginger (optional)
½ tsp roasted cumin/ jeera
¼ to ½ tsp. sugar
salt as needed

How to make mint raita recipe for kebab
1. Wash mint & coriander in lot of water. Drain them very well in a colander.
2. Dry roast 1 tsp cumin until aromatic and cool it. Powder it in a blender jar.
3. Add 1 tbsp of curd, coriander, sugar,mint, salt, ginger, garlic, onions (optional) and chili to the blender jar.
4. Blend them all well. Add it to whisked curd. Stir well.

Serve with kababs like Chicken kebab, Soya seekh kabab, Vegetarian Hara bhara kabab, Grilled tandoori chicken, Reshmi / malai kabab, Mixed veg cutlet and chicken cutlet.

4.Onion mint raita

Ingredients
¾ cup fresh mint leaves/pudina (loosely measured)
1 large onion chopped
½ tsp cumin
¼ to ½ tsp. sugar
salt as needed
1¼ cup thick curd or Greek yogurt
small green chili (deseeded)

Method
1. Wash mint/ pudina and coriander leaves few times. Drain them to a colander.
2. Dry roast cumin and cool it. Add cumin to a blender jar and powder. You can skip this if you have the powder ready, just use the powder directly.
3. Add 1 tbsp of curd, mint, coriander, sugar, salt and chili to the jar.
4. Blend until fine. Mix with the rest of the curd.
5. Add chopped onions or cucumber pieces.

5.Cucumber raita

Ingredients
1 cup chopped cucumber
1 cup curd (adjust as needed to get the desired consistency)
Salt as needed
½ tsp roasted cumin powder
pinch of pepper powder (optional)
few mint leaves or coriander leaves chopped finely(optional)
1 green chili seeded and chopped
1 tsp fresh ginger juice (optional)

1. Wash and peel cucumber. Deseed and Chop to small bites.
2. Add them to a bowl along with yogurt, salt and cumin powder. If using pepper powder and mint coriander leaves add them as well. Mix everything well. To make ginger juice, grate ginger, add it to a tea strainer and press, juice drips through the strainer. Add just one 1 tsp of the juice.
3. Garnish with pepper and cumin powder.

6. Ginger mint raita

This goes very well with pulao or biryani that is mildly flavored. The flavors of ginger and mint in this recipe make this a very flavorful one and is great for digestion.

Ingredients
1 ¼ cup yogurt (use ¼ cup more if needed)
½ cup onions roughly chopped
¼ cup deseeded tomatoes chopped (optional)
3 green chilies deseeded and chopped
Salt as required
12 to 15 mint leaves / pudina
½ to 1 inch ginger (adjust the quantity to suit your taste)
½ tsp roasted cumin powder/ jeera powder (optional)

Instructions
1. Whisk curd with salt until smooth.
2. Crush ginger and mint leaves together very well. You can also do it in a mini jar. Add 2 tbsps water to this mixture and filter it through a coffee filter/ strainer to yogurt. Press down the mint and ginger to bring out the flavors completely.
3. Add green chilli, onions and tomatoes. Garnish with mint or cumin powder.

7.Green chilli raita

This may be a good choice for those with young kids at home. Make your biryani, pulao kids friendly with out green chilies. Make a carrot raita for the kids. Then make this chilli raita to go with your biryani.

Ingredients
¾ to 1 cup fresh curd
2 to 4 hot green chilies
¼ to ½ tsp sugar (organic) (optional)
½ to ¾ tsp cumin or jeera powder
coriander leaves few chopped (optional)

Method
1. If you like you can deseed and use the green chilies to reduce the heat.
2. Fry green chilies in 1 tsp oil. Cool and blend with 2 tbsps curd and sugar in a blender. Mix with the rest of the curd and salt. Garnish with cumin powder. It is good to serve this chilled.

8.Cabbage raita

Ingredients
¼ cup finely chopped cabbage
1 cup fresh thick curd / yogurt
1 green chili deseeded & chopped
Roasted cumin powder / jeera powder to suit your taste
Few coriander leaves chopped
Sat as required
1 tsp lemon juice
Pepper powder as desired

How to make
Add lemon juice to finely chopped cabbage. Toss well and set aside for 5 minutes.
Whisk curd with salt & cumin.
Add cabbage, green chili and coriander leaves to curd.
Mix everything well.
Sprinkle pepper powder.

9.Bhurani raita (garlic flavored)

Ingredients
1 ¼ cup fresh thick curd / yogurt
2 medium garlic cloves
Salt to taste
¼ tsp roasted cumin powder
2 generous pinches of red chili powder

How to make
1. Whisk together curd, chilli powder and salt. Blend 2 garlic cloves with 2 tbsps of yogurt. Mix it with the rest of the whisked yogurt. Garnish with cumin powder.

10.Mixed vegetable raita

2 to 2 ½ cups yogurt
¼ cup onions
¼ cup deseeded chopped tomatoes
¼ cup carrot
¼ cup cucumber deseeded, peeled and chopped
Handful of coriander leaves chopped finely
green chilies 2 to 3 chopped
salt as needed

Method
1. Whisk curd with salt. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix.

11.Pomegranate raita or fruit raita

Ingredients
1 cup thick curd / yogurt
½ cup pomegranate / anardana (or sweet mangoes & grapes)
Salt to taste
¼ tsp roasted cumin powder
2 generous pinches of red chili powder (optional)

Whisk the curd to smooth with salt, chili powder and cumin powder. Add the pomegranate seeds and serve. This goes well with pulao and biryani that are not much hot (from chilies) as this tastes slightly hot.

12.Masala raita

Ingredients

1 cup fresh curd/ yogurt
¼ to ½ tsp cumin/ jeera powder
¼ tsp pepper powder (optional)
salt to taste
¼ to ½ tsp chaat masala
¼ tsp red chili powder
1 tsp sugar
2 tbsp cilantro finely chopped

Method
Whisk curd with all the ingredients except red chili powder. Garnish with chili powder and serve chilled.