Kachumber

In this tasty kachumber, tomatoes and onions are tossed together with a simple and oil-free dressing of lemon or vinegar, salt, spicy chili peppers and fresh herbs like cilantro or mint. You can add other vegetables, like cucumbers or zucchini or bell peppers or avocados, as well. The resulting salad is tasty as can be with the ability to liven up any Indian meal. This recipe concludes a classic trio of Indian Parsi dishes I’ve been sharing with you, including vegetable dhansak and Parsi brown rice. I hope you will try these and be transported, for a few minutes, to a Parsi dinner table where the food is always king.

What is kachumber?

A kachumber, pronounced kutch-oom-ber, is a very simple, everyday Indian salad made with onions and tomatoes and, sometimes, other raw veggies like cucumber. Although kachumber is often associated with Parsi cuisine, versions of this salad exist in nearly every Indian cuisine, called by names like kachumbari or koshimbir. It is usually served at a meal alongside Indian lime pickle and poppadum. You can think of this simple Indian salad recipe as a more rudimentary version of a raita, minus the yogurt, and you can convert it to a raita simply by dressing it with yogurt instead of lemon.

Why you’ll love this recipe

How to make kachumber

Chop all veggies to roughly the same size–a small dice is preferable. You should have roughly a cup of onions, a cup of tomatoes and a cup of zucchini. Add all vegetables to a bowl followed by the minced jalapeno, cilantro, lemon juice and salt. Toss well to mix. Let the kachumber stand 10 minutes for the flavors to marry, then serve.

Watch how to make kachumber

Serving suggestions

Serve the kachumber with vegetable dhansak and Parsi brown rice, or with a simple dal, like dal tadka or Rajasthani panchmel dal. It can also add zest and zing to a rice dish like vegetable biryani, dum aloo biryani, soya pulao, navratan pulao or vegetable tehri. You can also add kachumber to burgers or roll it into wraps, like this vegetable frankie. Or scoop it up with chips, like a salsa!