Boondi raita is a North Indian raita variety made with spiced yogurt and boondi. Boondi are tiny fried gram flour balls, deep fried in oil . These boondis are very easy to make at home and are also available in most grocery or sweets shops and can be bought from there. They may or may not be salted and very crisp as they are deep fried in oil.
Boondi are often served and devoured with chaat recipes or dahi vada (thayir vada) or added in jaljeera or mixed in the pani (spiced water) of pani puri. No matter what dish they are used in, these boondis enhance the taste of the dish.
If using the crispier and store-bought boondi, you will first need to soak them in warm water. This will allow the boondis to swell a little in size and become very soft. This way their entire crispiness is lost and then can be squeezed off the excess water and later added to the spiced yogurt. So, now you have a spiced yogurt with the soft boondis melting in your mouth.
Boondi raita is very easy to make and can be made with readily available ingredients, as long as you have some boondi at home. You can serve it with any North Indian dish. But mostly this raita goes very well with rice dishes like biryani or pulao or also different types of rotis and they actually pep these dishes more. Well, that’s what I think. 🙂
Now that we have done lot of talking about boondis, time to get started with the recipe. Please see below the ingredients and recipe for this delicious boondi raita….Wanna try? if so, please let me know in the comments box below how it turned out. For this recipe, you will need….
Ingredients
- ½ cup plain Boondi
- 1 cup Yoghurt
- ¼ to ½ tsp. Chaat masala
- ½ tsp. Fennel powder
- ½ tsp. Cumin powder, roasted
- ¼ tsp. Red chilli powder
- 2-3 tsp. Coriander leaves, chopped
- A few coriander leaves or mint leaves for garnish
- Salt, as required
Method
- First warm water in a pan on stove top or in the microwave.
- Add the boondi in the warm water and let it get soaked for 9 to 12 minutes.
- Drain this water and lightly press the boondi in your palms, to squeeze the water from them. Do not mash them up as they are soft and soggy at this point..
- Take curd in another bowl and whisk it. Add some water to the curd and whisk it if it is too thick to get a thin consistency. This is because the addition of boondi will make this raita have a thick consistency, ans we don’t want it to become too thick.
- Again, add all the dry spice powders mentioned in the list of ingredients. The quantity of the spice powders can be adjusted as per your taste and liking.
- Next, add the boondi and mix thoroughly.
- Finally, add chopped mint leaves/coriander leaves and then salt as per your taste. Stir the raita well.
- Scoop the raita into a serving bowl.
- Garnish the raita with mint leaves or coriander leaves.
- Now, boondi raita is ready to serve. Enjoy!!
- This raita can be served cold or at room temperature. They go very well with biryani or pulao or any rice based dishes like jeera rice, lemon rice etc.
