Boondi Raita Recipe, cool and refreshing

Introduction

Boondi Raita is THE condiment to serve with your rice dish. It is my absolute favourite condiment, the soft gram flour balls, soaked in yoghurt and gently spiced with cumin are just delicious.

I always make boondi raita when making pulao, biryani and keema rice. You just can’t beat it. It’s become such a given in our house, that when we have pilau, it can not be eaten without this raita! I once made pilau, shorba and boondi raita and sent it over to my friend/ neighbours (by the way, what a classic combination of food). My friend’s mother in law loved my boondi so much, that she just ate spoonful’s of it alone! If that isn’t the ultimate review, I do not know what is.

I love that boondi raita literally takes 5 minutes to make, the rest of the time is just leaving the boondi to soak and soften. It’s a great condiment to make as you can let the boondi soak whilst you prepare your other food. It does not require a great deal of attention or time.

Variations making Boondi Raita

You can make boondi raita with different sizes of boondi. I personally prefer the smaller balls, as the smaller size make it more delicate to eat along side your rice dish. However you may not have a choice, depending on your south Asian grocery shop. But do not be disheartened the larger size boondi balls will also work equally well with the recipe.

You can also make the raita spicy adding green chillies, red chilli powder, or even with paprika. It is really up to you personal preference as to how spicy you want it, if at all. If I’m making it for our immediate family, I’ll make it without the green chillies for the children. However when I am entertaining, I usually will throw in some chilli for the adults.

I add water to loosen the consistency of the yoghurt, you do not want the raita to be too thick. I slightly runny raita works nicely. If you prefer your raita runnier, you can of course add more water, or even milk.

Tips and shortcuts

I usually add fresh coriander, however I do always love a quick shortcut if possible. When I’m running short on time, I used frozen coriander for this recipe. It works just as well. When I am in my organised mode, I will buy fresh coriander bunches in bulk, wash and finely chop them. I add the chopped coriander into a freezer bag and pop it into the freezer.

For a recipe like this one, I break off a tablespoon amount of the frozen coriander and mix it through into the yoghurt. The frozen coriander will work just as well for any curry you want to make. I love that just takes out extra time preparing something on the day you want to cook. Streamline the cooking process wherever possible I say!

When squeezing the water out of the soaked boondi, this can be slightly fiddly to do. You can use a sieve, and gently press the boondi with your fingers, thereby releasing the excess water through the sieve. Or if you do not like to get your hands messy, use the back of a spoon to push the water out through the sieve. The main thing is to squeeze the excess water out gently so as not to break the soft balls. Lots of broken boondi balls will ruin the look of the raita. An odd one here or there is fine.

Ingredients for Boondi Raita

• 45 grams boondi or a 1/4 mug
• 500 grams natural yoghurt you can low fat yoghurt too. (Do not use set yoghurt.)
• 4 tbsp water
• 1/2 tsp salt to taste
• 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
• 1-2 tbsp fresh coriander, finely chopped
• 1 green finger chilli, finely chopped optional

Instructions

• Soak the boondi in a bowl of water for 30 minutes.
• Whilst the boondi is soaking, add the yoghurt to a bowl. (Make sure the bowl is large enough to fit in the boondi.)
• Then mix in the salt, cumin seeds, green chilli, fresh coriander, water and mix through in the bowl
• Once the boondi has softened (this may take longer than 30 minutes) , squeeze out the excess water from the boondi. I do this using my hands, the boondi becomes like a sponge which you can easily squeeze to get rid of the water. Do this gently as you do not want to rip the boondi balls.
• Next add the softened boondi to the bowl of yoghurt and mix through.
• Taste to see if you want to add more salt or chilli and then you are ready to serve.

See my video on Youtube, Instagram or TikTok to see how to make this dish.