Indian Recipes
Cucumber Raita
Cool yoghurt with grated cucumber, fresh herbs and toasted cumin: the classic side for curries, biryanis and spicy snacks.
- Serves 4
- Ready in 10 min
- No cooking
- Indian
Method
Squeeze the grated cucumber firmly in your hands or a clean tea towel to remove most of the water.
Toast the cumin seeds in a dry frying pan for about 1 minute until they darken slightly and smell nutty. Crush them coarsely in a pestle and mortar.
Whisk the yoghurt until smooth, then stir in the cucumber, most of the cumin, the mint, coriander and a good pinch of salt.
Spoon into a bowl, sprinkle with the rest of the cumin and a pinch of chilli powder, and chill until needed.
Tip: tap a step to tick it off as you cook.
Chef’s notes
- Best eaten the day it is made; the cucumber gradually waters down the yoghurt.
How this recipe was developed
The old Cookeryonline page reproduced a published recipe, so we wrote a new one. We compared the two best-known Indian home versions.
- Grated cucumber, thick yoghurt. Hebbar’s Kitchen grates the cucumber into whisked thick yoghurt; Swasthi suggests thick or Greek yoghurt. Squeezing the cucumber is our tip to keep it thick.
- Roasted cumin and herbs. Both use roasted cumin; Swasthi adds coriander and mint as options.
Sources we compared (ratings as shown on each site on 31 October 2026):
- Swasthi's Recipes (Swasthi Shreekanth): Cucumber raita
- Hebbar's Kitchen (Archana Hebbar): Cucumber raita (kheera raita)
This is an original Cookeryonline recipe written in our own words. Ingredient choices and techniques are credited above; no source text has been copied.