Banana Raitha, Vazhaipazha Thayir Pachadi

          Till now, whenever there was excess of bananas or overripe bananas, my only go to dish was the banana walnut bread, but now, I found this Banana Raitha/ Vazhaipazha Thayir Pachadi. We all know the health benefits of bananas, and if you need to know more, check out this article ' Banana Health Benefits at Well-Being Secrets ( has intereseting info about the origin of bananas, types and its many health benefits). Coming back to our dish, this is such an easy recipe, needs just minutes to put together, but it tastes so good, even my daughter who is not a big fan of bananas likes this and it's healthy too. You can serve it as a side to any meal, either a typical south Indian one with rice, sambar and curry or with briyanis or even with rotis. I can even have this as a dessert after a meal and it's so cooling and delicious in this hot weather now..

Need To Have

• Banana - 1 big or 3 small ones
• Curd/Yogurt - 1 cup
• Sugar - 1 teaspoon
• Urad Dal/Husked Black Gram - 2 teaspoons
• Mustard Seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
• Green Chilly - 1 slit
• Asafoetida - 1/4 teaspoon
• Curry Leaves - 10
• Grated Coconut - 2 tablespoons
• Pinch of salt
• Handful of Pomegranate to garnish

Original recipe here.

Method

          Beat the yogurt well with the salt and sugar to a smooth texture. Slice and mix the banana with the curd.

          Heat 1 teaspoon of oil and ghee ( 1/2 a teaspoon of each ), add the urad dal and mustard seeds, when the seeds starts sputtering, add the asafoetida, green chilly and curry leaves and saute for a minute.

          Then add the grated coconut and saute for a minute and add this to the curd-banana mixture and mix. Garnish with some pomegranate seeds and serve.

Some interesting raithas in this blog
Pineapple And Walnut Raitha
Potato Raitha
Ajwain Leaves Tambli
Check out here for more salads and raithas.

Note
The original recipe used some urad dal flour mixed with the yogurt, I left that out.
You can also add some golden raisins and cashews, saute it with the other ingredients and add.
Can use honey instead of sugar.