Recipe for Cucumber Sasive - Easy Cucumber Curry in Mustard Sauce

Continuing with our Karanataka Cuisine series this month, here's a really quick cucumber 'curry' if you may call it that. It's my kind of curry in a hurry. Goes perfectly with rice, and the mustard seeds ground into the spice paste give the mild cucumber a really good fiery kick. It is the kind of pungent heat that opens up your sinuses. I went one step ahead and ground some freshly plucked mustard greens from the garden to the spice paste, to get an extra mustardy punch. If you don't have the fresh leaves on hand, you don't need to bother about them. Since I used the food processor to finely mince the cucumber, this dish took me less than 10 minutes. It's the perfect last minute addition to a menu when you are expecting guests.

The same curry can be made using boiled and grated beetroots, ripe bananas and ripe mangoes. The sweeter or milder vegetables and fruits pair well with the spices in the curry. I've prepared the beetroot sasive several times, but the cucumber curry is even simpler as there is no cooking involved, saves time and I can imagine this would be a perfect curry for the summers.

Recipe for Cucumber Sasive - Cucumber Curry in mustard yogurt sauce

Serves 2

Less than 15 minutes

Ingredients

1 large cucumber (400 grams) or 2 medium

1 cup thick yogurt

3/4 tsp salt

For spice paste

1/3 cup grated coconut

2-3 green chillies

1 tsp mustard seeds

10 fresh mustard leaves (optional)

For tempering

1 tsp peanut oil or sunflower oil

1 dried red chilli

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

1 sprig curry leaves

pinch of asafoetida

Directions

Peel the cucumber and chop into large chunks and finely mince in food processor or using knife and chopping board. If there are too many seeds then scoop them out before chopping. If not, then leave them in.

Whisk the yogurt well in a medium bowl. Add the minced cucumber to this.

Using a mixer, in the chutney jar, grind all the ingredients for the spice paste using upto 1/4 cup water, to a fine paste.

Add this to the bowl of cucumber and yogurt, along with salt and mix well.

Heat the oil in a small tempering ladle or saucepan. Add the dried chilli, curry leaves, cumin seeds and add the pinch of asafoetida. Once cumin starts spluttering, transfer over the sasive in the bowl.

Serve with steaming hot rice.

Karnataka Menu:

Steamed rice
Pineapple Gojju

Mysore rasam

Chana Gassi

Cucumber Sasive

Yogurt / Dahi

Pickle

Papad

This post is part of the project called 'theKitchenDivas' which will have a theme going for each month, wherein we will try to do a post a week. The theme for January 2015 is Karnataka Cuisine.

You can find more Traditional Recipes from Karnataka by #TheKichenDivas

Hurali Kaalu Saaru by Sinamon Tales

Kori Rotti by WhiskAffair

Ragi roti with Tomato Chutney by FunFoodFrolic

Mangalorean Neer Dosa by Archana's Kitchen