Bathua Raita

This humble green Bathua Raita made with freshly sorted and boiled Bathua leaves is rich in savory flavors and perfect with hot roti or paratha.

Bathua Raita or Curd Dunked with Bathua leaves is a easy recipe to include nutritious leaves in your daily meals. Bathua is consumed during winters as it naturally keeps the body warm. In winters, I prefer consuming homemade fresh curd (not refrigerated ones).

These blended bathua leaves when added to room-temperature fresh curd, flavored with Pink salt, Black pepper and chopped green chilies, make the plain curd amazingly delicious.

Winters are most awaited by me for creating delightful recipes with the leafy greens. Bathua or Chenopodium Album or Lamb's quarters is one of the popular winter greens of India. Amazingly rich in fiber, these leaves can be used for many recipes. One of the family favorite from my blog is - Bathua Paratha.

In winters, my day begins with Bathua Paratha topped with white butter. Team this green bathua raita with rice, ragi paratha or side vegetable like Paneer Jalfrezi, aloo bathua saag for a hearty meal!

More Curd Recipes- Indian beet Curd, Tomato Curd.

Jump to:

• Ingredients
• How To Make Bathua Raita
• Expert Tips
• What to Team With This Bathua Raita?
• FAQs
• Storage Suggestions
• Stories From Kitchen
• Bathua Raita | Bathua Curd Dip

Ingredients

• Fresh Bathua Leaves- Lamb quarter's leaves work best for this recipe. Freshly sorted leaves add vibrant color and flavor to this curd. You may purchase already sorted leaves to save your time. We in India prefer to cook our greens and don't consume them raw. For this recipe, blanching bathua leaves would be fine. I have added blanched and blended leaves. If you don't have bathua leaves, mint leaves would work well too.
• Homemade Curd- The homemade curd has perfect creaminess, though you may use store-bought as well. In winters, I prefer using freshly made homemade curd (without keeping in refrigerator). I make curd at night and consume the next day. If you have refrigerated curd, that works well too. For making this recipe vegan, you may use any good quality vegan curd.
• Green Chili (optional)- Green chili add a spicy kick and our family simply loves it. If you don't like a spicy curd, feel free to omit it. A simpler way to reduce heat is to add chopped green leaves in a tea strainer and leave it in curd for some time. This ensures that chilies are not added in the curd, though their heat is added mildly.
• Black Salt (Kala Namak)- Indian Raita is soulless without the addition of kala namak. It adds amazing savory touch to the curd. If you don't have it, table salt would work too.
• Black Pepper- The earthiness that comes from black pepper in curd is mind blowing. I would highly recommend not skipping it. The best swap can be red chili powder or flakes.

How To Make Bathua Raita

Step 1 Wash and Boil Bathua

Washing the bathua leaves is an important step. The leaves are very muddy. In a large pot of water, add raw sorted chopped leaves. Let them soak in water. Take out leaves and transfer them to another pot of water. You would notice a layer of mud settled down at the bottom of the pots. Do this a couple of times using fresh water at every swap. Then transfer them in a colander and let it again be washed under tap water.

Boil the water in a pot. Add washed leaves in it and let them boil on a simmer flame for about 3-5 min. They would change color from light green to dark.

Note: If you would blend the leaves for adding to curd, you may skip the chopping part or roughly chop them.

Step 2 Blend and Add to Curd

In a colander, add the boiled leaves and let them drain out excessive water. Squeeze a bit and add the cooled off leaves to blender to make a smooth green paste.

While the leaves are cooling off, in a another pot, add curd and blend it with hand churn. Add the boiled bathua leaves puree. Spice the curd and add salt. Mix with a spatula.

Step 3 Serve It

Top the green Bathua Raita with chopped green chilies and serve it!

Expert Tips

• Since this curd is winter special, use a fresh homemade curd. If you have a store-bought curd, make sure to let it attain room temperature for best results.
• To have a smooth and creamy raita, I prefer blending it. Don't blend curd too much. We in India use wooden churn (Madhani) which is held in hands and moved in the bowl of curd. If you are using electric blender (hand or others), a pulse of 2 sec would be fine.
• My version of spicy may vary a lot from yours. Start with low quantities of chili and then increase gradually as per your heat tolerance.
• Let the boiled bathua leaves cool down before blending.

What to Team With This Bathua Raita?

Serve this delicious Bathua Raita with rice or paratha for a perfect breakfast!

• Jeera Rice
• Indian Lemon Rice
• Bathua Paratha
• Ragi Roti or Paratha

FAQs

Storage Suggestions

This curd would be good in the refrigerator for about 3 days in winters. Store it in airtight container with a lid. In summers, the curd becomes sour soon and I don't consume sour curd. We make Kadhi using old sour curd.

For consuming again, let it rest on the kitchen counter for about half an hour.

Freezing of the curd is not recommended.

Stories From Kitchen

As a kid (for that matter grown up), I had avoided greens in meals. I couldn't swallow the leafy veggies and born in Punjabi family meant that each day in winters would be full of leafy meals. Eventually, I stopped eating them. It's only after my marriage that I started having the greens. Thanks to the elegant recipes of my mother-in-law. She would knead the dough in boiled leaves instead of stuffing them in paratha. I can totally understand how difficult it would be for a kid to like the leafy veggies.

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