Kachumbar(Simple Table Salad)

The word “kachumber”, pronounced as ka-choom-ber, means “finely chopped or minced”. So Kachumber salad is a mix of chopped veggies, usually simple easily available cucumber, tomato, onion. Other fruit and veggies that work really well added to this salad include radish, carrot, rutabaga, fruit like apple, mango and pomegranate. Though a simple salad in itself, it lends to other everyday dishes like dals, pulao, curries, kebabs, stuffed parathas, and a delicious veggie component to bump up your daily veggie intake.

Prepping Veggies

Kachumber means minced, take the time to dice them into perfect tiny cubes. But honestly I’m not one for artistic plating, food art or carrot flowers, but if you’re going for praises for your fine knife skills more power to you. I try when I start to chop the veggies, but somewhere half way my fingers cramp and I give up.

• Cucumber: Peel or not to peel I leave it to you, I prefer peeling English cucumbers. Then half, then into long strips, sometimes I deseed them and finally cube them.
• Onion: Same thing cut in half, run the knife in the middle 3 times horizontally, then lengthwise and finally into small dices.
• Tomatoes: Chop the tomato lengthwise, scoop out some of the pulp and juice (to prevent a watery salad) then each piece into strips, and cubed. (Tip: If your knife isn’t sharp, a serrated knife works well or investing in tomato knife is worth it.)
• Optional Fruit and Veggies: Radish, carrot, mango, pomegranate, apple, rutabaga, pear etc chop red similarly into small dices.

What to Pair Kachumbar With!

Literally anything, we love it as a table salad specially in the warmer months. I love it to bump up our veggie intake by adding it to our everyday meals.

• We love it with Keema Tacos.
• Chicken Curry and Kofta curry
• Quinoa Kichari Pulao
• Kebabs+ Koftas
• Moong Dal or Langer Wali Dal
• mixed with yogurt like a raita .