Kachumber salad is a very basic and most commonly eaten vegetable salad from India. The freshness of this Indian salad is perfect to balance the rich flavors of Indian curries.
For most Indians, an everyday salad means diced onion, tomato, cucumber, radish, carrot, and chilies with a simple lime dressing. And, there is no fancy name for it.
Honestly speaking, though I ate Kachumber salad almost every day of my life, I never knew that it has a name too until I ordered Kachumber salad in a restaurant.
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What is Kachumber salad?
Kachumber or Cachumber salad is a simple vegetable salad from India with a tangy lime juice dressing.
It's made by mixing a lot of seasonal vegetables which are flavored with a few Indian spices, lime juice, fresh cilantro, and mint leaves.
The blend of these simple ingredients creates a refreshing treat that is perfect to be served with almost every Indian meal.
It's similar to Mexican pico de gallo.
What goes in kachumber salad?
To make this Indian salad, you will need the ingredients shown below:
Ingredient notes and substitute suggestions
- Vegetables: Generally, cucumber, tomato, onion, radish, and green chilies are used in Kachumber salad. You may add or skip 1-2 vegetables depending upon the availability. Sometimes people also add carrots, bell pepper, and cabbage.
- Chaat masala: Chaat masala is an Indian blend of spices. It's made with ingredients like dried mango powder, black salt, cumin powder, coriander powder, dried mint, dried ginger, asafoetida, and carrom seeds. This masala is used in a lot of Indian salads and street food dishes.
How to make?
Kachumber salad recipe is one of the easiest salad recipes you will find. Just chop all the vegetables into even small pieces. Add spices, salt, chopped herbs, and fresh lime juice.
Toss and serve.
Step by step photo instructions
Serving suggestions
Kachumber salad can be served with any Indian meal. It makes even the simplest meal taste amazing.
You can also fill a few tablespoons of this salad in your wraps or sandwiches.
Or, just mix it with some yogurt to make vegetable raita.
Recipe tips and tricks
- The seeds and skin of Indian cucumber are generally thick, so if you are using it, peel the cucumber and remove the hard seeds before adding it to the salad.
- You can remove the seeds and pulp of the tomato if you want.
- If you don't like spicy food, remove the seeds of green chilies and chop them very fine before adding them to the salad.
- For a spicier kachumber salad, sprinkle some chili flakes.
Frequently asked questions
Kachumber salad should not be made in advance as the vegetables start releasing water after some time and then the salad doesn't taste fresh and crunchy. When you make this salad, try to consume it within 2-3 hours of making.
You can also chop the vegetables and refrigerate them till serving time. Add salt, spices, and lime juice 10-15 minutes before you plan to serve.
Chaat masala is a blend of Indian spices which is used in many salads as well as Indian savory street food. You can easily find it in the spice section of Indian grocery stores.
If you don't like eating raw onion, skip it. This salad tastes good even without onion.
More Indian salad recipes
Looking for more quick and easy Indian salad recipes? Don't miss to check the following links:
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Recipe
Kachumber Salad
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 red onion
- 1 tomato
- 1 cucumber
- 5-6 cherry radish you can also use daikon radish
- 1-2 green chilies
- Juice of ½ a lime adjust to taste
- A handful of fresh cilantro
- 5-6 Mint leaves
- ½ teaspoon chaat masala
- ¼ teaspoon red chili powder
- Himalayan salt regular salt is fine too
- Ground black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Finely chop coriander leaves and green chilies. Dice all the other vegetables in equal bite-size pieces.
- Put all the ingredients in a bowl, squeeze fresh lime juice, and toss.
- Enjoy!
Notes
- Don't make this salad in advance otherwise, the vegetables will start releasing water and won't remain crunchy.
- You may add or skip vegetables depending upon what's available or not available to you.
- More recipe tips and tricks are given within the post above, please follow them to make this recipe.
Very refreshing 👌👌👌👌
Thank you 🙂