Beetroot Raita

Raita is a yoghurt based accompaniment / dip goes with spicy, hot and sometimes bland food. It helps get the heat down or gives that much needed tangyness to the dish and also helps with the digestion. I don't have a pulav or biryani or paratha without it.  Just love how it adds that extra hint of flavour to the dish.

Raitas of different kinds. Generally raw or cooked veggies like cucumber, tomato, carrot, onion, potato, beetroot go into making a raita. In the northern part of India its very common to add boondi (fried chickpeas batter shaped like little balls) to the yoghurt. The spice level of the raita can be as per your tastebuds.

Beetroot raita can be made with raw or cooked beetroot. I prefer making it with cooked beetroot because I feel it blend better with the yogurt but the raw one also tastes equally good. If you are short of time you can always use canned or the precooked beets that you get in stores.

INGREDIENTS:

• Beetroot (cooked)- 1 small to medium sized
• Natural Yogurt / dairy free yogurt - 1 cup 
• salt per taste
• green chilly or chilly powder as per taste (optional)

METHOD:

• Steam cook the beetroot with little water
• When you steam cook the beetroot retain the water you can add it to the raita or just use as garnish on top.
• If you are using home set yogurt and if you think its a bit watery then just hang the yogurt for a bit. 
• How you do this - I use a colander / mesh strainer and line it with a muslin cloth add the required yogurt in that and let it stand for a few mins. Place a bowl under the colander to collect the water. you can use this for making rotis or add it to gravy.
• If you are using dairyfree yogurt
• Grate the cooked beetroot and mix it with the yogurt with the salt and chilly.
• Mix it to combine well and serve chilled with rotis, paratha or rice.
• You can use the beetroot water to garnish or use chopped coriander to garnish the raita.