Name: Cucumber Salad with Chiles and Yogurt
Yield: Makes 4 Side-Dish Servings, 4 First-Course Servings, or 6 First-Course Servings when Served with 3 other Crudité Salads
Cuisine: Indian
Ingredients: 1 bunch mint or cilantro, large stems removed and leaves finely chopped at the last minute; 2 poblano chiles, charred, peeled, and seeded and then minced; Pepper; 3 Thai chiles, seeded and minced; 2 teaspoons coarse salt; 4 regular cucumbers or 2 English cucumbers, peeled (optional) and halved lengthwise; 2 cups whole-milk plain yogurt or 1 cup crème fraîche

Preparation info

Makes
4
Side-Dish Servings

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Cooking

By James Peterson

Published 2007

About

Many of us have encountered this salad, made with yogurt and mint, in Indian restaurants, where it is called raita. If you make it with crème fraîche instead of yogurt, it can stand alone as a first course. If you make it with yogurt, it is best with other crudités.

Ingredients

2 cups whole-milk plain yogurt or 1 cup crème fraîche
4 regular cucumbers or

Method

If using yogurt, scoop it into a strainer lined with cheesecloth or a coffee filter, place over a bowl, and let drain for at least 2 hours or up to overnight in the refrigerator.

Scrape out the seeds from the cucumber halves with a spoon, then slice the halves crosswise into crescents about ¼ inch