Beetroot Raita (Indian Savory)

Beetroot Raita

Beetroot is the healthies vegetarian food. It has negligible fat, less calories but rich in vitamins and micro nutrients and dietary fibers. In my earlier blog I have posted how to make healthy and yummy beetroot sabzi 

http://jyotsna-pant.blogspot.in/2013/06/beet-root-vegetableindian-savory-of.html

Raita are the Indian savory made as an accompaniment to the main course. When vegetables are mixed with thick curd along with salt and spices the outcome is yum and the vegetables can be chosen according to the season. Say in summers cucumber (which is very cooling), in winters Bathua (Bathua is leafy winter vegetable), ever green onions and tomato in any and every season. Same stands true to beetroot.

Beetroot is available almost every day of the year. This slightly bitter, sweet tap root of beet plant when boiled loses the bitterness and develops a heavenly taste. Apart from making vegetable and salad out of it, it can also be used to make healthy, colorful tasty raita.

Preparation Time: 5 minutes

Cooking Time:  20minutes

Servings: 4 Medium servings

Nutritional value: (Approx.)

Calories: 165

Carbs: 10gm

Cholesterol: 0

Fat: 6.2gm

Dietary Fibers: 2.8gm

Sodium: 200 mg

Potassium: 325mg

Sugars: 7gm

Proteins: 8.6gm

Apart from this it is rich in

Vitamins A, B₆, B_12,

Minerals (Micro nutrients) Magnesium and Calcium

Ingredients Required For Making Beetroot Raita:

• 100 gm Beetroot
• 200 gm Low fat Curd
• 1-2 Green Chilies
• 2 twigs of Curry Leafs
• 1/4Teaspoon Mustard Seeds
• 1/4Teaspoon Cumin Seeds
• Salt to taste
• 1 Lemon

Directions For making Beetroot Raita:

• Wash beetroot and boil it. In pressure cooker it takes approximately 10 minutes and in open container 15-20 minutes. Boiled beetroot should not become mushy. It should remain firm.

Boiled Beetroot

• Let the boiled beetroot cool.
• Till Beetroot is cooling, Cut the green chilies to finely, remove leafs from curry leafs twigs. Keep away for further use.
• Peel the boiled beetroots and grate them.

Boiled and Peeled Beetroot

Grated Beetroot

• In a wok take 1/2 teaspoon oil and heat it. When the oil is hot add
• Mustard seeds
• Cumin seeds
• Finely cut Green chilies
• Curry leafs

Tempering Ready for Beetroot

• Cook for 1 minute on medium heat.
• The seeds will splutter and aroma of spices will emanate from wok.
• Add boiled, grated beetroot to the wok and stir to mix the oil and spices to the beetroot.
• Add salt and lower the flame.
• Mix nicely and cover. Cook for 4-5 minutes with stirring in between, to avoid the beetroot sticking to the bottom of the wok.
• By now the beetroot will become soft yet holding the shape it had after grating.

Beetroot Ready For Raita

• Cool the cooked beetroot.

Cooked Beetroot For Raita

• Whisk the Thick curd with and add the cooked beetroot to it. Mix nicely.
• Add 1/2teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice to the mixture of curd and beetroot.
• Mix again and add salt if required.
• Beetroot raita is ready to be served.

Beetroot Raita

• Enjoy Beetroot raita with any vegetarian/Non-vegetarian food. It adds an altogether dimension to the meal.

Tips:

• Make sure the curd is not sour. Fresh thick curd is required. If the curd is old and sour the sweetness and flavor of beetroot will be obscured.
• While boiling beetroot make sure it is not over cooked, mushy, pulpy beetroot is no good for making raita.
• Taste chilies before use. Take the chilies according to your taste and hotness of chilies. The raita should have a balance of sweet, salt, sour and chilies.
• Do not use red chilies or chili powder as it really does not go well with beetroot.

Suggested variations:

• Soft leafs of beetroot can be used for garnishing.
• Fried leafs of beetroot can be used to garnish the raita to add texture to raita.
• Finely cut coriander leafs can be used for garnishing.