Tomato Shallot Raita (Paleo, Vegetarian)

I remember the first time I had raita. I had just arrived in Vancouver and was still recovering from an illness that had left me bedridden and miserable for weeks. My host had invited me out to an Indian restaurant for dinner to celebrate her daughter’s birthday, and I was in no position to refuse. The rich, spicy dishes presented to us held no appeal to my fogged-up head and queasy stomach, but that curious little white sauce, speckled with diced vegetables, cool and soothing in the mouth — I could’ve gobbled it all down with a spoon.

Growing up, yogurt had been a school lunch staple — easy to stuff into a lunchbox, sweetened to please fussy, immature taste buds, and bearing the semblance of a healthy snack. Now, you can rave all you want about frozen yogurt, but I have never been particularly fond of sweet yogurt dishes of any type, and as soon as I was old enough to make my own school lunches, yogurt became a nostalgic artifact from the peanut-butter-and-jam-sandwich days.

That night, in the restaurant, I considered a whole other side of yogurt that had been concealed from me all those years.

Savory. Yogurt.

Yogurt and salt.

Yogurt and vegetables.

Yogurt for dinner!

It felt like a revelation. Why had I never been introduced to this side of yogurt before? Why had I only been exposed to liquidy pink goop that you had to suck out of a tube, and giant tubs that developed fuzzy blue hairdos because we always failed to finish them in time? I felt like I’d been under-appreciating this simple fermented milk, and this oversight had to be remedied.

My interest in yogurt renewed, I vowed to recreate the dish from the restaurant at home. Fortunately, that proved to be easier than I could’ve imagined. Raita can really be as simple as dicing and mincing a few ingredients, a adding a sprinkle of spices and mixing it all up.

This recipe is very flexible. Feel free to play around with the proportions and ingredients. I used shio koji to salt it, but you can use any salt that you have on hand. Serve it as a cooling accompaniment to a richer, spicier meat or vegetable dish, or eat it up with a spoon like yours truly! In any case, rest assured that the days of liquidy pink goop are long gone.