Another week, another raita. Last week’s iteration was a simple one involving cucumber, radish and onion (and a bit of green chilli). This week’s is even simpler. There are only two main ingredients beyond the yogurt: ginger and mint. In this particular case, I used a variety of mint I’m growing in my garden for the first time this year: ginger mint. But if you don’t have any—which, why would you?—you can just use whatever mint you have. Despite the low number of ingredients this is a slightly fussier raita than last week’s, however, as it involves julienning and frying the ginger to just short of a crisp first. But once you’ve done that all that’s left to do is some mixing and I feel confident that you are capable of that. Make some today and have it as a cooling side with whatever you’re eating.

Ingredients

• 1 cup full-fat yogurt
• Enough milk to thin it out enough to be just pourable
• A pinch of sugar
• Salt to taste
• 1 tblspn chopped mint
• 1 tblspn julienned ginger
• 1 tblspn oil

Preparation

1. Beat the yogurt in a bowl first by itself and then with the milk.
2. Add the salt and sugar, mix in thoroughly and set aside.
3. Heat the oil over medium heat and quickly fry the strips of ginger till just crisp. Remove to a plate and cool.
4. Add the ginger and mint to the beaten yogurt and stir.
5. Set aside for at least 30 minutes for the flavours to infuse the yogurt.

Notes

1. All raitas—especially ones like this—are very versatile. You can pair them with all kinds of Indian dishes, of course, but you can also pair them with any kind of roast meat. A simple raita like this one is also a nice accompaniment to a bowl of chili or beans.
2. You could add a bit of cucumber to this raita too—I’d say just about a tablespoon’s worth. You don’t want to mask the ginger.
3. If you were a more artful garnisher than me—there’s a name for an Instagram account: The Artful Garnisher—you would save some of the chopped mint to throw carelessly over the top at the end.