Carrot Zucchini Chive Raitha

Whenever I make a pulao or briyani, I love something cool and refreshing to go with it. The obvious choice is raitha. Pulaos are also my favorite dish for a lunchbox, given that its a one pot meal that you can make quite nutritious with the addition of veggies/meat or legumes. But I usually skip taking raitha in the lunchbox. Guess why? Because raitha’s usually contain onion and I hate having onion breath at the office.

I end up missing the raitha, and the flavor and crunch that onions have in the raitha.

My solution for that: chives.

Yes, I have a beautiful pot of chives in my garden, that I’ve slowly started using in my kitchen. Chives to me look like baby scallions. They belong to the same family as onions, leeks, and garlic, infact they are the smallest members of the onion family. They are known in the culinary world for their mild onion flavor. exactly what I needed.

Ingredients:

1 carrot peeled and grated

1 zucchini peeled and grated

8 – 10 chives snipped with a scissor

3/4 cup yogurt

pinch cumin powder

salt to taste

Method:

Whisk the yogurt with the salt and cumin powder until it is smooth. Add the carrot, zucchini and chives and gently combine. Serve!

Verdict: Creamy, sweet with a hint of cumin. Crunchy from the chives and the mild onion flavor without onion breath. Win-Win! If you don’t have onions, try substituting scallions. They should work just fine.

I am sending this raitha to ‘Side Dishes from India-other than Dals/Subzis’ at VeggiePlatter.