Tomato Raita is a tangy and spicy salad recipe that comes together in about 10 minutes. Make it ahead of time and cool it down with creamy full fat yogurt perfect for an appetizer.
Why You’re Going To Love This Raita Recipe
- Fast. Made start to finish in less than 30 minutes .
- Easy. Just cook the tomatoes and spices on the stovetop and serve over yogurt.
- Low Carb . Only 4 net carbs per serving.
- Great For Snacking. Makes for a fantastic appetizer or quick snack .
What Is Raita Used For?
Raita can be used in a variety of ways. It is most commonly used for dipping and spreading as an appetizer or a snack.
However, it also works as a great side dish or addition to your next Thali .
What Are The Ingredients Of Raita?
This Tomato Raita recipe has an intense flavor profile. Tangy ripe tomatoes and mustard seeds combined with Spicy Serrano peppers add the heat. Indian spices such as Curry leaves and Asafoetida add a grassy and onion and garlicky flavor.
The yogurt in this recipe adds a lovely creaminess, and also serves to cool down the heat from the serrano pepper.
I’ve simply served the cooked tomato salad right on top of the yogurt. It’s perfect to serve as a side dish during a large dinner with many courses.
What Is The Difference Between Raita and Tzatziki?
If you’re unfamiliar with the dishes, you may wonder what could possibly be different about yogurt sauce and raita sauce. Well, there’s totally a difference.
The difference is all in the base ingredient. Raita starts with dahi or a thin yogurt . Tzatziki starts with thick Greek yogurt .
What To Serve With Tomato Raita
Typically you would serve Raita with lentils or meat, rice, and a hot vegetable. My delicious Vegetable Thali would be perfect for a full course meal (pictured below).
How Do You Make Tomato Raita?
- Grab a skillet and heat oil over medium-high heat. Once the oil is ready, add the mustard seeds and chopped Serrano pepper. Cook until the mustard seeds have popped. Then add in the dried curry leaves and Asafoetida.
- Add the chopped tomatoes, and cook just until they are slightly softened. You want them to still retain their shape.
- Remove the tomato and spice mixture from the heat, and allow to cool. You will add the full-fat yogurt (not Greek Yogurt!) to the cooled tomatoes.
- Taste the tomatoes before serving. Depending on how ripe they are, you make need to add a splash of fresh lemon juice to add tang to the Raita .
Dried Curry Leaves For This Tomato Raita
Dried curry leaves are optional in this Indian Salad . Curry leaves have a slightly nutty and grassy flavor and are found in many Indian curry and vegetable recipes. Placing the curry leaves in the hot oil helps to bring out their flavor.
Curry leaves are rich in antioxidants and Vitamin C. Fresh Curry leaves are more potent in flavor, and will keep in the refrigerator for about a week. Dried Curry Leaves that you can store in your spice cabinet, and will last you much longer.
You can cook and then remove the Curry leaves from your dish if you think your guests will be unsure what to do with them. We typically serve them with the dish and just eat around them.
What is Asafoetida?
Asafoetida is used in savory dishes, often to add more flavor by mimicking the taste of onions and garlic.
It’s a staple ingredient in Indian cooking found in a variety of vegetable dishes. The herb alone has a very pungent smell. As it cooks, it mellows in flavor and takes on a more garlicky smell and flavor. It is believed to also help with digestion.
Asafoetida is totally optional if you aren’t familiar with it. It really helps to bring home the onion and garlic flavor, so you could add a clove of garlic and half a small onion if you want that flavor without using the actual spice.
Other Raita Variations
Raita is SO very customizable. Just because this recipe shows how to make tomato raita, doesn’t mean it’s the best or only way. I also love this made with cucumber diced in with the tomatoes. However, you can make it with spices as simple as:
- salt
- salt and pepper
- cumin and coriander blend
- chaat masala
The most popular version of raita served in restaurants is just diced cucumbers, tomatoes, and red onions with a little salt and cilantro.
But most Indians think this is a little bit of a joke since everyone knows that good raita has a LOT more veggies than what they give you.
How Long Does Raita Last In The Fridge
Since this Raita recipe has yogurt as a base, you will need to use it fairly quickly after making it. Yogurt tends to separate after sitting for a long period of time.
I would suggest eating this within three days of making it. If you plan on saving some for later, I would suggest keeping the yogurt and tomato compote topping separate so you can stir the yogurt if it begins to separate before serving again.
Is Raita Good For Health?
Yogurt is great to help aid in digestion. It’s also high in protein and low in fats. This Tomato Raita recipe is a great snack to assist a weight-loss journey or for someone that needs to get a little more protein in their diet without a ton of unhealthy fats.
Need More Indian Recipes?
- Another great Indian salad to try is my Indian cucumber peanut salad (not to be outdone by my Korean cucumber salad ).
- If you are looking for dishes to try with my Tomato Salad Recipe, you can serve it with peas and rice pilau or my Lamb Biryan i or chicken biryani.
- And if you’re looking for more vegetarian dishes, this list of 70+ Low Carb Vegetarian Recipes has tons of new entrees, side dishes, drinks and desserts for you to try! There’s something here for everyone!
- If you’re looking for more great appetizers , check out my Goat Cheese Puffs . They’re a savory, sweet, and simply irresistible appetizer that’s perfect for parties and holiday gatherings.
Tips and Tricks to Make This Tomato Raita Recipe
- If you don’t like so much heat, you can start with half a Serrano pepper and work your way up from there.
- If you want to make this in a hurry and only have canned tomatoes on hand, substitute those.
- I recommend using a Full fat Yogurt, but if you only have Greek Yogurt, put a splash of water in it to thin it out a bit before serving.
- Add a spritz of lemon juice to balance the tang of the Greek Yogurt.
- Make it ahead of time! The flavors will intensify as it sits.
Raita Recipe | Tomato Raita
Equipment
- Tadka Ladle
- 12 inch Skillet
Ingredients
- ▢ 3 Tomatoes , chopped
- ▢ 1 TBS Vegetable Oil
- ▢ 1 teaspoon Black Mustard Seeds
- ▢ 3-4 Dried Curry Leaves , optional
- ▢ 1 Serrano peppers , choppd
- ▢ 1 teaspoon Kosher Salt
- ▢ 1/4 teaspoon Asafetida , optional
- ▢ 1 cup Yogurt , not greek yogurt
- ▢ 1 teaspoon Lemon Juice , optional
Instructions
Heat oil in a skillet. To the hot oil, add mustard seeds and chilis. When the mustard seeds have popped, add in chilies, curry leaves, and asafetida if using.
Add tomatoes. Cook until the tomatoes are a little soft but still retain their shape.
Allow them to cool, and then mix with the yogurt right before serving.
If your tomatoes are over ripe and very sweet, add a little tang with the lemon juice.
If you only have Greek yogurt, add a little water to thin it down.
You can also try this with canned tomatoes if that’s all you have access to.
This tastes like an Indian version of Rotel 🙂
All the heat in this recipe is from the Serrano, so use as much or as little as you can tolerate or enjoy.
This is a great make ahead salad as the flavors intensify overnight in the fridge. Eat some now, rest later.
You can also serve this as a dip with chips for something a little different.
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Don’t forget to check out my other Ketocookbooks.
Keto Instant Pot, Keto Fat Bombs, Sweets, & Treats , and Easy keto in 30 minutes.
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Raita Recipe | Tomato Raita
Ingredients
- 3 Tomatoes chopped
- 1 TBS Vegetable Oil
- 1 teaspoon Black Mustard Seeds
- 3-4 Dried Curry Leaves optional
- 1 Serrano peppers choppd
- 1 teaspoon Kosher Salt
- 1/4 teaspoon Asafetida optional
- 1 cup Yogurt not greek yogurt
- 1 teaspoon Lemon Juice optional
Instructions
Heat oil in a skillet. To the hot oil, add mustard seeds and chilis. When the mustard seeds have popped, add in chilies, curry leaves, and asafetida if using.
Add tomatoes. Cook until the tomatoes are a little soft but still retain their shape.
Allow them to cool, and then mix with the yogurt right before serving.
If your tomatoes are over ripe and very sweet, add a little tang with the lemon juice.
If you only have Greek yogurt, add a little water to thin it down.
You can also try this with canned tomatoes if that’s all you have access to.
This tastes like an Indian version of Rotel :)
All the heat in this recipe is from the Serrano, so use as much or as little as you can tolerate or enjoy.
This is a great make ahead salad as the flavors intensify overnight in the fridge. Eat some now, rest later.
You can also serve this as a dip with chips for something a little different.
Raita Recipe | Tomato Raita https://twosleevers.com/tomato-raita/
Congratulations. If you’re reading this, you’re ready for Keto Diet Plan Week 3. Wondering how to start Keto? Totally confused by where to start? It’s easy to get overwhelmed. These posts break down how to start on Keto in an easy way. This is week 3 of keto tips.
Keto Diet Plan Week 3
This is a short series on how to start keto . Some of us want to jump into Keto cold turkey. Others might want to ease in. For those of you who are wondering how to start keto:
Congratulations. You made it through 2 weeks of the keto diet. Depending on how aggressive you’ve been, your body should have switched over, or be switching over, to burning fat rather than carbs. At this point, you might even consider testing your ketones with ketone strips to see if you’re in ketosis yet. If you’re not, continue to decrease your carbs this week and you should get into ketosis soon.
If by chance you haven’t started a keto diet or have just started thinking about keto read my Keto Diet Plan Week 1 post first. When you’re done with week 1, you can move on to the Week 2 plan to see just how easy it is to get started.
GET THE FREE PRINTABLE CHART FOR 4 WEEKS TO KETOSIS BY CLICKING HERE!
There are only four basic rules for week 3 of keto and most of them build on what you’ve already been doing. By now you should already have completely given up all grains, legumes/beans, and pasta/rice/potatoes. Additionally:
- Fruit. You should have already cut down to no more than 1 piece of fruit a day. Cut out all fruit this week. You will eventually be able to have berries in small portions, but for now, cut out all fruit until your body is comfortably burning fat instead of carbs and sugar.
- Increase fasting. You should already be fasting 4 hours between meals. Now, go at least 12 hours between dinner and breakfast, or breakfast and lunch. Do not eat snacks in between because eating causes insulin release. Insulin release = no fat burning. If you get super hungry, first drink water or your sugar-free beverage of choice. If that doesn’t work, eat a fat bomb. My book is a great resource for fat bombs: Keto Fat Bombs Sweets & Treats Going longer between meals will control your insulin and begin to prepare you for intermittent fasting if you choose to incorporate that into your keto diet in the future.
- Drink more. You should already be drinking 64 oz of liquids a day. Keep it up . If you get sick of water you can incorporate other options such as sparkling water or club soda, green or black tea, coffee, or bone broth. While beverages such as Diet Coke (or diet soda in general) are technically keto-compliant, several recent studies have suggested these artificially sweetened drinks may trick the body into craving the calories and carbs it believes it’s getting from the diet soda. When your body realizes it isn’t, you may make up for it by overeating. If you need to drink diet soda just do so in moderation and monitor if it seems to make you crave sweets.
- Start writing down your food intake. Find a food tracker you like and start keeping track of your carbs. Some options are MyFitnessPal, Cronometer, and Lose It. At this point, you will only track your carbs but eventually, you will track all of your macros. You might try a few different food trackers until you find one you really like and is easy to use.
How you might be feeling this week
By week 3 the keto flu symptoms should have abated. Hopefully the gradual deletion of carbs and sugar have minimized these. You’re probably starting to feel like you can handle this.
You’re not having to track your food like mad because you are becoming more comfortable with what you can and can’t have and you might start looking for substitutions for your favorite foods.
Many people report that they have begun losing weight by week 3, but if you haven’t don’t get discouraged; it will come soon. By week 3 many people are able to think more clearly, sleep more deeply and report having more energy.
Again, if you’re not there yet, don’t despair, just know that’s coming soon.
Keto Resources you need:
- Grab one of the BEST Keto Snacks On Amazon for those cravings you just can’t ignore.
- I’ve written two Keto cookbooks now that will take the guessing out of cooking while on Keto. Even non-Keto people love these recipes! Get Easy Keto in 30 Minutes and Keto Fat Bombs Sweets & Treats .
- I’ve put together a TON of my favorite Keto recipes into lists like Vegetarian, Soups, Holidays, Instant Pot, and more to make finding GOOD recipes easy for you.
That’s it for the Keto Diet Plan Week 3. Enjoy your meat, veggies, nuts, cheese, cream, bacon, avocados, and other yummies as before.
Recipes you will enjoy on Week 3:
- Keto Peanut Butter Chocolate Bars - these are AMAZING and will make you forget Reese’s exist.
- Keto Butter Chicken - you can make this in your Instant Pot or Slow Cooker and it’s an incredible meal no one will guess is Keto.
- Keto Meatloaf - the ultimate American comfort food made low carb and still just as delicious!
Don’t forget to check out my other Ketocookbooks.
Keto Instant Pot, Keto Fat Bombs, Sweets, & Treats , and Easy keto in 30 minutes.
