Kachumber | Onion Tomato Cucumber Salad

Salads are usually served as a side dish in our Indian meal. An Indian curry tends to be on the spicier side and a fresh raw salad helps to balance the hot spicy flavors. Raw vegetables contain a lot of nutrients, so it is important to include raw vegetables as part of your daily diet. When I think of Indian salads, the ones that comes to my mind are simple onion-tomato salad, sprouted green gram (green moong dal) salad, carrot salad and the most popular kachumber salad.

Kachumber is an Indian vegetable salad made with red onion, tomato, cucumber mixed with Indian spices like roasted cumin powder (jeera powder), chaat masala, herbs like coriander, green chillies and lemon juice. Kachumber is a vibrant and crunchy salad and it’s light and fresh flavours help to balance the spices in a dish. 

We can make different variations to this simple salad. You can add grated carrots, chopped radish, bellpeppers or capsicums, chopped mint leaves and even lettuce to include some greens. If you serving for kids or do not prefer the spice, you can skip the green chillies and add fresh black pepper. For a twist, add yogurt and make kachumber raita (yogurt dip)!

You see how easy it is to adapt this basic salad according to your taste and the ingredients you have in your kitchen. Just throw in what you have in hand and make adjustments to balance out the flavours as you taste. I usually serve the kachumber salad with roti and curry or pulao but it serves as a wonderful accompaniment with any meal.

Kachumber

Indian onion, tomato and cucumber salad

Print Pin Recipe

Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Total Time 10 minutes mins

Ingredients

• 1 medium red onion chopped
• 1 large tomato chopped
• 1 medium cucumber chopped
• 2 green chillies finely chopped
• ¼ cup chopped coriander leaves
• ½ tsp roasted cumin powder
• ⅛ tsp chaat masala
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• Salt to taste

Instructions

• Add the onions, tomato, cucumber, green chillies, coriander leaves in a bowl. and combine.
• Then add salt, lemon juice, cumin powder, chaat masala and mix well.

Notes

• Chaat masala or chat masala is an Indian spice powder mix typically consisting of dried mango powder (amchoor), cumin, coriander, dried ginger, chilli powder, asafoetida (hing) black pepper and salt, easily available in most Indian grocery stores.

Course: Salad

Cuisine: Indian

Keyword: kachumber, salad