Easy Homemade Indian Cucumber Raita Recipe

Creamy yogurt combined with Indian spices and freshly chopped cucumber and mint makes for the most perfect cucumber raita, ideal for your Indian meal. We’ve been making our raita recipe for years now, and we think we’ve got the spice blend just right – spicy yet soothing, all in one!

This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Affiliate, if you purchase through those links, I earn a small commission. Thank you!

Why you’ll love our cucumber raita recipe

• This is the perfect accompaniment to an Indian meal; pair it with a delicious curry or add it to a thali as the perfect dipping sauce and mop it up with homemade naan bread or chapati.
• If you’ve eaten at Indian restaurants, chances are you’ve tried this Indian condiment, and this easy raita recipe helps you recreate the restaurant experience in your own home.
• If you like your curries hot, then this raita has a delicious cooling effect and calms those spicy flavors down.
• Make it ahead so you have less to cook on the day; this raita keeps for up to 3 days in the fridge.
• The flavors are awesome and SO much better than store-bought.
• Ready in just 5 minutes, it’s simple, quick, and easy to make.

Once you make your own raita at home, you’ll never want to buy one again, the way that you can perfect the spices and flavor profile to suit you is just priceless.

Ingredients you’ll need

You’ll need all the ingredients shown in the photograph below.

How to make raita with step-by-step instructions

Making our cucumber raita recipe is easy if you follow our simple recipe instructions.

A complete printable recipe and the measurements in both US customary and metric are available in the recipe card below.

Chop your English cucumber into small chunks and set aside.

Add plain yogurt to a medium bowl, and whisk until smooth.

Then, add chopped cucumber, cumin powder, Kashmiri red chili powder, chaat masala, finely chopped mint leaves, and salt.

Mix thoroughly to combine and garnish with chopped mint, cumin seeds, or chili powder.

Serve with your favorite Indian dishes, and enjoy!

Recipe notes and expert tips

• Out of plain yogurt?
  Use Greek yogurt instead; it’ll have a thicker consistency but will still work well.
• Can’t take the heat?
  Omit the Kashmiri chili powder.
• Add even more flavor
  Use black salt.
• Make it vegan
  Simply replace the natural yogurt with a non-dairy yogurt.

What is raita?

Essentially raita is an Indian side condiment that’s made from whisked yogurt and contains different spices and fresh herbs.

It’s a great addition to any Indian meal and is usually eaten to counteract the heat from spicy foods and cooked vegetables.

As with Indian cuisine, you’ll find so many variations of raita recipes, for example, vegetable raita or our boondi raita, and bhindi raita recipes are completely different from our cucumber raita.

What do you serve raita with?

Our great recipe is the perfect condiment served with so many different spicy Indian dishes.

It’s delicious when served with poppadoms and flatbread such as roti, chapati, and naan bread along with an Indian red onion salad, boondi raita, paneer sandwich, or a dahi chutney.

Add it to an aloo gobi naanwich or an Indian chili potato naanwich; it’s delicious!

Dip aloo bonda or aloo tikki in it for a tasty snack.

Perfect served with curries such as a vegetable bhuna, paneer jalfrezi, or vindaloo.

Serve raita together with aloo gobi, saag aloo, jeera aloo, or aloo palak, and it becomes part of a delicious Indian thali, which is an assortment of delicious Indian dishes for you to try.

Do you have to peel cucumber for raita?

No, you don’t need to peel regular cucumbers when making raita; it’s a personal preference.

We don’t peel them when we make raita, but if you prefer it without the skin, then go ahead and peel them.

Do you chop or grate cucumber when making raita?

It’s a personal preference whether you choose to chop or grate the cucumber.

We prefer a chunky cucumber and mint raita, so we chop it, but many people prefer grated cucumber, so the choice is totally yours.

What’s the difference between raita and tzatziki?

The difference is mainly in the yogurt.

An Indian raita recipe uses natural yogurt, and Greek tzatziki uses Greek yogurt.

Naturally, there are no Indian spices in tzatziki either!

What yogurt is best for making raita with?

We use natural whole milk yogurt as we love the flavor it gives the dish, but you could use low-fat yogurt also.

Greek yogurt would also work; it will make the raita thicker, but don’t let that stop you from making it.

Play with the flavors

Indian food is always evolving, recipes change from family to family, and that’s what appeals to us so much about it.

We always encourage you to play with flavors to achieve the perfect raita recipe for you.

Try our recipe first, and then next time, swap things around; maybe add green chili or cilantro.

Instead of garnishing your raita with chopped mint, try frying cumin seeds and mustard seeds instead.

How long does raita keep in the fridge?

Raita will keep for up to three days in the fridge when kept covered in an airtight container.

You can even freeze it if you have it left over, although we prefer to make it fresh as it only takes minutes to make.

More raita recipes for you to enjoy

If you like our cucumber raita recipe, you should try these delicious recipes; boondi raita and bhindi raita, and we have more recipes on our website all the time.

• Bhindi raita
• Boondi raita
• Indian onion salad
• Vegetable bhuna
• Aloo tikki

We hope you enjoy making and eating our cucumber raita recipe and would love to hear how you got on with making it.