Lettuce raita

This raita or pachadi is simple and delicious and is spiced simply with roasted cumin seeds.But you are free to spice it with various dry masala powders (mentioned as optional below) as per your taste.

main ingredient of this recipe is lettuce which makes this raita healthy.

 It is a cool and refreshing summer time recipe. Raitas are best eaten immediately but will keep up to 2 days in fridge. They are best side dish with chicken biryani , vegetable pulao, corn pulao ,aloo paratha ,egg biryani .




Ingredients :
1 1/2 cup yogurt (dahi)
1 cup lettuce
1/4 cucumber (Kheera) chopped
1/2 medium sized Onion, chopped
1/2 medium sized tomato chopped
2 table-spoon mint leaves, finely chopped (Pudina)
1/2 tspn roasted ground cumin (Jeera)
1 green chilly, finely chopped
1/4 tspn black pepper (Kali mirch) (optional)
1/4 tspn red chillies powder (lal mirch) (optional)
1/4 tspn chat masala (optional)
10-15 fresh coriander leaves
3/4 cup water
Salt as per taste

Method :


 1.Torn the lettuce into medium size.Peel the cucumber and chop it into small pieces (cubes).

 

 2.Take a medium sized bowl and add yogurt to it. Mash it with a blender  until it gets smooth. Add water and remaining ingredients except cucumber,  onion, tomato and again mix them well.
 3.Now add cucumber,  onion, tomato to it and mix it again.  Refrigerate lettuce  raita for 1/2 hour .


 

 4.Before serving, garnish vegetable raita with finely chopped coriander leaves and serve chilled.
 


Tip  :

You can even add chopped beetroot, carrot,simla mirchi (green bell pepper),corn kernels to above raita


Health benefits of Lettuce

    Lettuce leaves are one of the very low calorie green-vegetables. 100 g fresh greens provide just 15 calories. Nonetheless, they are the store house of many phyto-nutrients that have health promoting and disease prevention properties.

    Vitamins in lettuce are plentiful. Fresh leaves are an excellent source of several Vitamin A and beta carotenes. Just 100 g of fresh, raw-lettuce provides 247% of daily vitamin A, and 4443 µg of beta-carotene (Carotenes convert to vitamin A in the body; 2 µg of carotene is considered equivalent to 1 IU of vitamin A). These compounds have antioxidant properties. Vitamin A is required for maintaining healthy mucus membranes and skin, and is also essential for vision. Consumption of natural fruits and vegetables rich in flavonoids helps to protect the body from lung and oral cavity cancers.

    It is a rich source of vitamin K. Vitamin K has a potential role in the bone metabolism where it thought to increase bone mass by promoting osteotrophic activity in the bone cells. It also has established role in Alzheimer's disease patients by limiting neuronal damage in the brain.

    Fresh leaves contain good amounts folates and vitamin C. Folates require for DNA synthesis and therefore, vital in prevention of the neural tube defects in-utero fetus during pregnancy. Vitamin C is a powerful natural antioxidant; regular consumption of foods rich in vitamin C helps the body develop resistance against infectious agents and scavenge harmful, pro-inflammatory free radicals.

    Zea-xanthin (1730 µg per 100 g), an important dietary carotenoid in lettuce, is selectively absorbed into the retinal macula lutea, where it thought to provide antioxidant and filter UV rays falling on the retina. Diet rich in xanthin and carotenes is thought to offer some protection against age-related macular disease (ARMD) in the elderly.

    It also contains good amounts of minerals like iron, calcium, magnesium, and potassium, which are very essential for body metabolism. Potassium is an important component of cell and body fluids that helps controlling heart rate and blood pressure. Manganese is used by the body as a co-factor for the antioxidant enzyme, superoxide dismutase. Copper is required in the production of red blood cells. Iron is essential for red blood cell formation.

    It is rich in B-complex group of vitamins like thiamin, vitamin B-6 (pyridoxine), riboflavins.

Regular inclusion of lettuce in salads is known to prevent osteoporosis, iron-deficiency anemia and believed to protect from cardiovascular diseases, ARMD, Alzheimer's disease and cancers.