Tzatziki, raita and kolokithakia tiganita - recipe

Even before I moved to India, I knew about raita. It had been my lifesaver when the food was over the top spicy in Indian restaurants. Now, in India I have some new insight:

• Raita can be made with a number of different delicious flavors: like cucumber, pineapple and pomegranate
• The spicy in Indian restaurants in Europe, is NOT particulary spicy compared to spicy in India, so: 
• I love my raita even more now than I did before. Nothing beats some cooling raita to put out the flames:-) 

In Greece we have tzatziki  - kind of like the Greek cousin of raita. Both of them are welcomed quests in our global expat cuisine. I have experimented a bit with raita, and tested out different recipes.

I found a very good raita recipe at Asmitas food blog Compulsive Foodie. I really love her blog- it is so delicate and with some great recipes! In this recipe, cucumber and yogurt are the main ingredients, just like in tzatziki, but the spices are quite different. You can find her yoummie raita recipe here.

I discovered another recipe - which looked quite intriguing at Kumar's Kitchen, another food blog which I like. You can check out their version with carrot, coconut and ginger here.

And now for the Greek cousin Tzatziki, which I know the best of course. We use tzatziki as a side dish, and it can go with anything: fish, meat or veggie dishes. When we have fried zucchini / kolokithakia tiganita - which my teens love - tzatziki is a must! This is how we do it: 

TZATZIKI

You need: 
2-3 cucumbers
2 cups of yogurt
3 cloves garlic, grated
salt, pepper 
3 tsp dill 
2 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp vinegar
2 tsp lemon juice

You do:
Peel and grate the cucumber. Squeeze out the water. If you have time- leave it to drain (in a coffee filter) for a couple of hours. Do the same with the yogurt, if it has too much water in it. 
Put the grated cucumber in a bowl and add garlic, salt, pepper and dill. Add olive oil, vinegar and lemon juice. Mix well. I prefer to do it by hand, so we can still have the bits of cucumber in there. 
Cover up the bowl and leave it in the fridge for at least one hour. 

PS 1. Instead of grating the cucumber, you can cut it in small cubes. 2. Some also add 2 tsp mint. 
     

FRIED ZUCCHINI

You need: 
2 large zucchinis
2-3 eggs
1-2 cups flour
salt, pepper
oil
vinegar

You do: 
Chop the zucchinis in slices ( about 1/2- 1 cm thick), and set aside. Prepare 2 bowls: In one you mix the eggs with 1-2 tsp vinegar. In the other bowl you mix flour with salt and pepper. Heat up oil in a frying pan. 
Dip the slices of zucchinis first in the bowl with egg-mix and then in the bowl with flour. (they need to be well covered) 
Fry the zucchinis slices until they are light brown. Put them on a plate covered with kitchen paper. 

I hope you enjoy your zucchinis with tzatziki! 

Fried zucchinis with tzatziki

In Greece, zucchinis with tzatziki will usually be a side dish, or a part of our big wonderful Greek meze- lots and lots of dishes- that just keep coming:-) Have a look at this post from last summer, if you want to see more.

Oh well, I will go for Kitchari with pineapple raita today myself! Love it!

Have a wonderful day, dear reader, and thank you for popping by!