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Kachumber Salad is a crunchy, juicy fresh salad that is part of South Asian Cuisine (Indian, Pakistani). It pairs easily with a variety of curries, biryani, pulao, grilled tandoori chicken, Chicken Karahi and so on.
Kachumber is South Asian fresh salad made with onion, cucumber, tomato, and basic lemon and pepper dressing. It is also called Indian Cucumber salad.
What to serve with Biryani and Pulao?
The kachumber salad is the best salad to match with any biryani or pulao. This recipe is using lemon-based dressing. However, instead of lemon, you can add ¾ cup yogurt and 1 teaspoon sugar too. This addition also tastes delicious. This chilled yogurt kachumber (AKA Kachumbar raita) is a refreshing summer salad served with dal and chawal, biryani or pulao.
You can also serve a separate zeera or cumin raita or mint raita to go with this salad.
How to make it?
Mix all vegetables and lemon juice in a bowl. ( I'm using more onions here as Indians love onions in a salad. But you can reduce onions and add more tomato and cucumber. Similarly, raw tomato is not a favorite with many so I'm adding less of it.)
Add salt and pepper right before serving as salt will make the vegetable release all the water making it soggy. Store salad covered in a fridge. Serve chilled.
Tips
- For any fresh salad always use the freshest veggies available to you.
- Add chopped green chilies to the salad only if like a spicy salad. If you don't just add pepper which is good enough.
- Deep purple onions are more pungent in flavor than light purple ones. So try to use light purple onions in a salad.
- To reduce the pungent flavor of onions, you can wash onion slices with cold water. Put onion slices in a strainer to remove any excess water.
- Serve chilled for extra crunch.
- You can also prepare kachumber 2-3 hours ahead. Store it in the fridge in an airtight container (onions can make other food in the fridge smell like onions). Just add salt in the end as it will make the salad release its water content making it soggy.
- You can also add mint leaves to this salad.
- Pair kachumber salad along with other veggies for more health benefits. Like I have added cooked beetroot in the plate on the sides. So it doesn't meddle with the actual flavor of salad and you enjoy fresh veggies on the side.
- If you wish to turn kachumber salad into a summer salad bowl, add 1 less onion and 1 extra cucumber. Also, add about ½ to ¾ cup whipped yogurt and 1 teaspoon sugar. Mix all together and enjoy this salad alone or pair with almost any Indian or Mediterranean food.
Hungry for more salad? Check these
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📖 Recipe
Kachumber (Pakistani Biryani Salad )
Ingredients
- 2 medium onions, finely sliced or chopped
- 1 Â medium cucumber, chopped
- 1 Â medium tomato, chopped
- ½  medium green chili, finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 2 tablespoon chopped coriander
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
Instructions
- In a large bowl mix all ingredients except salt and pepper.
- Add salt and pepper just before serving, so the salad stays fresh and crunchy.
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