'Mint sauce' at Indian restaurants

[Binky Profile]

You know the bowls of sauces/dips brought to the table to go with your order of poppadoms? (mango chutney, onions, a mint sauce and something else - I forget what). Every Indian restaurant seems to use the same recipe.

Does anyone know how to make this mint sauce?

It could be based on yogurt but has a sweet taste and is a lot runnier. I have a hankering to eat some vegetable samosas and that mint sauce would be just right

[Seatallan Profile]

I find a combo of yoghurt and bog standard mint sauce (the sort you buy at the supermarket and which contains sugar) does it perfectly Binky. I often add cucumber too- seeds/pulp removed and then finely chopped.

[jeral Profile]

I think you might mean the mint and leaf coriander one, because it's what I've had and wondered what it was. Mine was uniform pale green, mild, bland even so neither vibrant nor spicy and not "fresh" really, just very "pleasant" and slightly addictive.

Internet recipes seem to vary, some adding onion cucumber chilli, even garam marsala, but I didn't taste any of those. Also,some seem more like a raita texture whereas mine was smooth and the thickness of double cream. I suspect might have a spot of sugar.

Here's a chilli version:
https://www.harighotra.co.uk/pudina-raita-recipe

[Kacey Profile]

I made some of this last night but mine is always savoury rather than sweet. I've just discovered you can 'cook' poppadum's in the microwave! I now need to 'forget' as we really can't have them every time I make a curry. I use natural yogurt, a pinch of salt and dried mint. I probably use 1/2 tsp of mint to 4 big tablespoons of yogurt. You can just add a splash of water to make it runnier. Sweet (but not smoked) paprika goes well with yogurt for a dip.

With my last Indian online shop I bought a jar of Bombay Sandwich Chutney, OH loves a Bombay Sandwich - chutney, sliced potato, sliced tomato and chaat masala. The chutney is gorgeous but blows your head off so I added a tsp to another bit of yogurt last night and it made a lovely spicy dip to go with the mint one.

I dry my own mint, bunches of fresh in a low oven till its dry enough to crumble. I find good quality dried mint actually works better than fresh for some cooking.

[Pampy Profile]

The ones that I've had have never had coriander in - I loathe the stuff so would never have eaten it after the first taste. I think the ones served in restaurants are quite simple - yogurt (sometimes diluted with a splash of water or lemon juice), chopped mint and sugar.
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/mint-chutney

[scullion Profile]

i'm with seatallen, yoghurt and shop-bought mint sauce seems to be be the right taste - and simplest.

ps i hadn't noticed that spell checker had changed mint to mince!

[jeral Profile]

Strangely, Pampy, I loathe coriander leaf also so it must be tempered by the mint somehow, or maybe it's another herb altogether.

I do know that the one I'm talking about isn't just mint herb so thinking that Binky wouldn't ask unless she thinks there's something different since it's easy enough to experiment with mint sauce dips. Could be quite wrong of course and often am

[Pampy Profile]

There's loads of different recipes on t'interweb but I think that the versions that you find in restaurants are generally the simplest (and cheapest!).

[Stokey Sue Profile]

We had a similar conversation with Mamta a while back

The answer seemed to be yogurt, mint sauce form a jar, a pinch of turmeric to brighten the colour and flavour - and the secret ingredient is a pinch of amchoor, ground dried green mango

The amchoor is sour sweet, and you wouldn't think it would make a difference in the presence of yogurt and vinegary mint sauce, but it does!

[Pepper Pig Profile]

Mint chutney in today’s Grauniad.

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2021/f ... el-recipes

[Gillthepainter Profile Website]

pinch of amchoor

Yip, I make it with yoghurt, mint sauce and mango chutney (without the chunks).

Tony wants it with the red onion, which I soften in lemon juice.
But it's lovely without too.

[liketocook Profile]

Yoghurt, mint sauce and tomato ketchup is how I make it after asking our local Indian restaurant how they made theirs.

[herbidacious Profile]

I researched the yellow/orange sauce a while back and intended to make it. It's not made from very sophisticated or fresh ingredients. One of them is bottled mint sauce. It also involved some mango chutney. I did buy all the ingredients a while back. I should have a go. I will need to refind the recipe. (It was a youtube video actually.)

[karadekoolaid Profile]

This is definitely not a restaurant-style dip, so no pots or jars involved here, but the chutney is lush. It´s part of a dish where a fish steak is slathered in the chutney, wrapped in banana leaves and grilled for about 4 minutes each side.

1 tsp cumin seeds
3 small green chiles
4 cloves garlic
1 cup coriander leaves
1 cup mint leaves
2 tbsps grated coconut
salt
lemon or lime juice

Mix all the ingredients in a blender until you have a smooth paste.
If you want to use it as a dipping sauce, put some yoghurt with it.