Boondi raita || Curd Dip

Boondi raita is a very popular curd preparation in India, in all auspicious occasions boondi raita is served as an accomplishment.

How To Make Boondi:

For this first, I made boondi, for which I took 1/4 cup of chickpea flour, added 1/4 tsp of turmeric and a very little salt and made a batter out of it ( batter should be pouring consistency ) for making boondi or balls I have taken perforated ladle (To accomplish this you need to use a flat skimmer, strainer or perforated ladle that has several round holes on the surface, each about the size of a whole black peppercorn). The critical part of boondi making is to use the right kind of utensil for the batter to drop through the holes into the hot oil to form the little pearl shaped fried balls. These fried balls can be stored in an airtight container for at least a month.

How to make raita:

After making these balls I took 2 cups of curd in a bowl and beat it nicely so that it become smooth and added 1/4 tsp of sugar and salt as required, 1/4 tsp red chilli powder, 1/4 tsp roasted cumin powder. After preparing this curd mixture I soaked one cup of prepared boondi in this curd. I generally prepare this raita an hour before I serve so that the boondi is soaked properly in curd. 

Helpful Tips

1. Curd: Use fresh homemade curd or yogurt. Make sure that the yogurt is not sour. If using packaged curd, check the expiry date.
2. Consistency: If the curd is thick or if using greek yogurt, then add some water to thin the consistency.
3. Soaking boondi: For a soft, melt-in-the-mouth boondi, always soak them in warm water. Soaking fried boondi in water also pulls out some of the oil from them in the water. If you add the crispy boondi directly to the yogurt, they won’t soften completely and you will get to taste their crunchy bits when eating. But if you like crispy boondi in the raita, then do not soak them.
4. Spices: You can skip or alter the ground spices according to your taste preferences. Try to use roasted cumin powder as it gives a nice earthy, nutty aroma and taste to the raita.
5. Boondi: Preferably use plain or salted boondi to make this raita. For a slightly spicy raita, add some finely chopped green chillies or increase the red chilli powder by a bit. You can also choose to add both green chilies and red chilli powder.

Serving Suggestions:

The boondi raita can be served cold or at room temperature. They go well with biryani or pulao or any rice-based dishes like cumin rice boondi raita is an important part of the north Indian thali. You can also serve boondi raita with stuffed paratha variants like gobi paratha, aloo paratha, paneer paratha or mooli paratha.
Refrigerate the raita if not serving immediately. I would recommend eating the raita on the same day or at the most you can store for 1 day in the fridge.
If in case after refrigeration the raita has become thick then add a few teaspoons of water to thin the consistency slightly.

Finally, I would like to suggest you few more recipes from my blog :

• Sweet Boondi Curd || Prasad Recipe|| Dahi Boondi
• Onion tomato curd dip ( onion tomato raita)
• Curd dips / Raita’s
• Green Apple And Cashew curry
• Cucumber And Mustard Raita || Pahadi Raita