Recipe: Tangerine Raita

We had visited the Ojai region, just north of LA a few years ago. This region is known for its abundant and fresh produce, including olives, oranges, tangerines and pomegranate – and of course, wine. From our drive through the area, for whatever reason, I can find only a few pictures of our trip, including this one.

This season, in late March, means excuses to finding new ways to eat yogurt – something that cools the body from within, has lots of probiotics and is a great source of vegetarian protein. I have a weakness for wanting something sweet with every meal – and a bumper selection of Ojai Pixie tangerines gave me just the excuse. The easy to assemble raita is refreshing –not being tempted to eat the tangerines while separating the segments will be your only challenge.

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TanGerine Raita

Makes: 1 ½ cup

Time: 20 mins.

Ingredients

1 tsp chaat masala

½ tsp freshly grated ginger

1/2 cup Greek yogurt

2 fresh tangerines or oranges (used large seedless Ojai Pixie Tangerines for this recipe)

Salt, to taste

2-3 fresh mint leaves

Method

Peel the tangerine, separate segments, remove skin of segments as well.

Combine the chaat masala, ginger, and Greek yogurt in a large bowl. Carefully mix in the freshly segmented tangerines. Add salt to taste, dress up with finely slivered mint leaves just before serving.

I received these seedless Ojai Pixie Tangerines from Melissas Produce - that sponsors quite a bit of my produce. Being seedless, easy to peel and sweet, it was a huge challenge to not get to them just straight out of the box, and eat them as is.

Note. In an earlier version of this post, I had rereferred to the Tangerines as Oranges. Either can be used in this recipe.