Looking for a refreshing and healthy side dish to complement your meal? This Indian Kachumber Salad is a must try! This simple yet flavorful salad is a staple accompaniment to your favorite Indian dishes, packed with a medley of fresh vegetables and vibrant spices. With its crisp textures and zesty flavors, kachumber is the perfect complement to any meal.
While this salad goes perfectly with just about anything, I highly recommend pairing this salad with homemade chicken seekh kebabs, beef seekh kebabs, classic tandoori chicken tikka, fluffy chicken yakhni pulao, or even homemade dal makhani.
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👩🏽🍳 Why This Recipe Works
- Healthy and Nutritious: With its focus on raw vegetables, kachumber is a healthy and nutritious choice. Very few, simple ingredients is the way to go with this salad!
- Quick and Easy: This salad is incredibly quick and easy to prepare. It requires minimal chopping and no cooking, allowing you to whip up a refreshing salad in no time, especially when you're short on time or want a hassle-free side dish.
- Versatile and Customizable: This salad is incredibly versatile, making it suitable for your personal preferences and dietary needs. You can adjust the spice levels, add your favorite herbs or spices, or even add in different herbs - no two families make their kachumber the same!
🥘 Ingredient notes
- English cucumber: English cucumbers are the best fit for this salad, as they have a thin, edible skin and they are considered to be seedless. Not only is this ideal for quick prep, but the skin and flesh add for extra texture to the salad.
- Hot house tomatoes: Hot house tomatoes tend to have a meaty texture, that stands up well to a small-dice preparation. As the tomatoes sit in the salad, they will stay relatively firm and will not get mealy and mushy.
- Chaat masala: Chaat masala is a blend of spices, including mango powder, black salt and dried pomegranate. It adds a tangy flavour to the salad.
A full list of ingredients with measurements is located on the recipe card, below.
📖 Substitutions
- English cucumbers: Feel free to use Persian cucumbers, or any cucumbers that you have available to you. If using cucumbers that have a thicker, waxy skin and larger seeds in the flesh, you will want to peel the cucumber as well as remove the seeds.
- Hot house tomatoes: Feel free to substitute with roma tomatoes, or vine-ripe too.
- Fresh lemon: You can use white vinegar in place of fresh lemon.
🔪 Variations
- Fruity: Add some diced mango, or pomegranate seeds to this salad for a sweet and savory mix.
- Herby: Add fresh cilantro or mint in to this salad for extra freshness.
- Avocado: This is not conventional by any means, but avocado is a delicious, creamy addition to the freshness of kachumber.
⏲️ Step-by-step Instructions
Prep Work Before Cooking
- Collecting all your ingredients: This will make cooking so much easier. Gather all the spices you will need, and keep them nearby.
Prep the vegetables by cutting everything into a uniform-sized dice. Add the vegetables to a large bowl. [photo 1]
Dress the vegetables with fresh lemon juice and the spices. Toss well, and serve!
💭 Expert Tips
- Remove tomato seeds: If you find that your tomatoes have a lot of seeds or are a watery inside, I recommend removing the tomato seeds with a spoon before dicing them.
- Remove the bitterness from onions: If you find that your onions have a sharp bite to them, soak them in ice cold water for 3-5 minutes, and drain. Add the drained onions to the remaining vegetables. This will remove the bitter sharp taste from your raw onions.
🍽 Make Ahead & Storage
- Kachumber is best enjoyed fresh, but you can prepare certain components ahead of time to save on prep work.
- Wash, peel (if needed), and chop the vegetables such as cucumber, tomatoes, and onions. Store them in separate airtight containers in the refrigerator.
- This salad is at its best when consumed fresh, as the vegetables tend to release water and become less crunchy over time.
- Transfer any leftovers to an airtight container and refrigerate. I recommend to consume it within 1-2 days for the best taste and texture.
- The salad might become slightly watery as the vegetables release moisture.
- Due to the high water content of vegetables, freezing is not recommended as it can lead to a loss of texture and freshness.
⭐ Recipe FAQs
The level of spice can be adjusted to your preference and spice tolerance. This recipe uses mild spices with pinch of heat, but you can add chopped green chilies or extra chili powder if you prefer more of a kick.
Yes, this salad is naturally gluten-free as the ingredients are so simple. Always check the spices and seasonings you use to ensure they are gluten-free, as a precaution!
Yes, you can adjust the sourness of this recipe by adding more or less lemon juice according to your preference. Taste the salad as you go and adjust the level of tanginess to your liking. I recommend starting out with less, and adding more if you prefer.
📝 More Salad Recipes
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Indian Kachumber Salad
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 Large English cucumber - medium-diced
- 2 Large Hot house tomatoes - medium-diced
- 1 Large Red onion - finely-diced
- 1 Lemon - juiced
- 2 teaspoon Chaat masala
- ½ teaspoon Red chilli powder
- 1 teaspoon Sea salt
Instructions
- Prep the vegetables by cutting everything into a uniform-sized dice. Add the vegetables to a large bowl.1 Large English cucumber, 2 Large Hot house tomatoes, 1 Large Red onion
- Dress the vegetables with fresh lemon juice and the spices. Toss well, and serve!1 Lemon, 2 teaspoon Chaat masala, ½ teaspoon Red chilli powder, 1 teaspoon Sea salt
✱Recipe Notes
- Remove tomato seeds: If you find that your tomatoes have a lot of seeds or are a watery inside, I recommend removing the tomato seeds with a spoon before dicing them.
- Remove the bitterness from onions: If you find that your onions have a sharp bite to them, soak them in ice cold water for 3-5 minutes, and drain. Add the drained onions to the remaining vegetables. This will remove the bitter sharp taste from your raw onions.
Amy says
This was on the table fast and a great pairing with tandoori chicken and rice. Love the bright flavour of lemon and the kick of red chili powder (I used Kashmiri chili powder) and the chaat masala added some depth. This salad will be a staple over the next few months as I find the quality of lettuce is not always great over the winter and expensive.
Sunena says
I am so happy to hear that, Amy! Glad you enjoyed it 🙂
Deirdre Kelly says
So tasty!