Cucumber Raita with Parsley

This is so easy and so refreshing. You need to start with a very good yogurt to make it well, though. I love Pinehedge 3.8% yogurt. A litre of this stuff comes in a glass bottle on which you pay a $1 deposit, making it very affordable if you return the bottle. I love this farm. It's bio-dynamic, organic, and most of all, the yogurt is the best I have found.

...and I've tried a lot of different plain yogurts. Liberté Organic, Liberté Greek-Style, Mediterranean, Danone, Damafro, Olympic, Activia, Stoneyfield, BioBest, Astro, and anything from the fat-free versions to the 1%, 2%, 3%, 3.8% and higher. Seriously, I've tried them all. Some are better than others, and some are just awful, but this one - Pinehedge - is the best. They have a light version but you've just got to go for the 3.8% whole milk yogurt or kefir. If you want it thicker, more like a Greek yogurt, use a cheesecloth to drain off the whey. This junk that Liberté has now, the Greek-Style fat-free, is a joke. It's bitter, and yes, it's full of protein, but there is no flavour. It's like eating protein powder; some people do it, but they don't do it because it tastes good or they like it, like those ridiculous Activia commercials ("Some people eat for the flavour, some people eat it for what it does for them". Yeah, it eases your digestion, but so do all other probiotic yogurts, and this one certainly is not the best for you anyway, not having the most bacteria of all the probiotic yogurts out there. I digress).

Anyway, take a good yogurt and whisk at least 2 cups of it with a fork to get out any lumps. Then grate one large (or several small) cucumbers into a bowl along with a small handful of chopped parsley (or mint, or cilantro), a sprinkle of roasted cumin seeds (stick some whole cumin seeds in a small frying pan over medium heat for about 5 minutes, or until they start to become fragrant. Then grind them in a mortar and pestle, a blender, a coffee grinder or in a sealed bag, beating with something heavy), a small to slightly-less-small sprinkle of cayenne, 1/4 tsp salt (or skip it. You don't really need it if you have a good yogurt!), and some freshly ground black pepper. Then add it to the yogurt. You can stir as much or as little as you like, since it's really beautiful when everything is only sort of mixed in, or if you sprinkle it with the cayenne and parsley to garnish.
Sorry for the awful photos...

That's all. You can also skip any of the above ingredients. Often if I have an Indian meal I just pour some good yogurt on the side of the plate and eat it plain. The cumin, parsley, cayenne, and cucumber are extra. Goodness knows you don't really need the salt and pepper. That being said, the cucumber was actually really good grated. It's much better this way than chopped. I did it on a fine grate so it really integrated well with the yogurt and thickened it up. Then just cover and refrigerate.