Saturday, January 21, 2006

Vegan Raita and Samosas

Raita is a yogurt mixture used in Indian cuisine to balance hot, spicy foods. Last night we had vegetarian samosas (purchased locally), and I made this vegan Raita, combining soy yogurt with cucumber, fresh mint, and seasonings.

The raita was easy to make, and was the perfect complement to the spicy samosas. I was impressed that my husband liked it too, since he has never liked yogurt and normally uses vegan sour cream with these samosas. While we like the vegan sour cream, it is much more processed than soy yogurt, so it's nice not to overuse it!

I am going to refine this raita recipe and I will post it a little later.

6 comments:

Harmonia said...

Oh yum! :)

I have been looking for a vegan yogurt alternative...to buy at the store...any ideas?


Also, I posted what I bought at the market today and would love to hear what you had on your last list.

Rajesh said...

Raitas are pretty cool, need to add some onions and coriander leaves, though. Would taste even better !

Dreena said...

Hi Madelyn! - These ones were from Choices. I agree, sometimes it's too much fuss making them. Piquante has them too, but they are pretty heavy and a lot of potato with not much other veg. Choices will put these on special from time to time as well.

Hey Harmonia - I'll have a look! I think it would take me an hour to jot out my week's list! :)

Welcome Rajesh, and thanks for the tip!! I'm going to play around with the Raita recipe a bit, so I'll try some coriander instead, or in addition to, the mint next time. I like coriander, but it is a tricky herb for people, isn't it? You either hate it or love it, it seems! Do you ever use other veggies, like red bell pepper in raitas?

Rajesh said...

@ Dreena - Coriander is like a default when we make Raitas', but yeah you gotta like the taste. Never used red ball peppers though.

Guinnah said...

looks good Dreena! We make a lot of this kind of thing - I made one once that had grapes in it, I can't remember where I got the recipe but it was nice, different.

Harmonia - we tried every plain soy yogurt under the sun and the winner in our household is Wildwood Soyogurt, plain. It is unsweetened and has that tangy flavor that plain dairy yogurt has.

Gauri Radha गौरी राधा said...

I'm Indian and haven't made vegan raita yet, I must try this out!