tomato, cucumber and onion salad

Fresh and slightly acidic, this chopped tomato, cucumber and onion salad, or kachumber, is another common accompaniment to an Indian meal. I cannot recall this not being served at most of our family meals.

This simple version is a great way to restore the palate after eating something hot. It is also really good to cut through creamy dishes.

Kachumber is a Parsi recipe and the traditional accompaniment to dhansak. They probably inherited it from traditional Gujerati cuisine. It also features in our National day lunch.

Every family have their own twist to this recipe –  kachumber is really just a salad of diced vegetables. You could substitute almost anything that was in season. You could, for example, add diced raw beetroot. Any vegetable you peel and can eat raw is a candidate. But do remember that it always, always has onion and tomato.

For a hotter taste, add one finely chopped green chilli, that has been deseeded and the membrane removed. Or leave the seeds and membrane if you want the heat.

Add a quarter teaspoon of cumin seeds for a nutty taste. Or sprinkle with chaat masala.  Substitute apple for the cucumber, or use both. Substitute lemon or lime juice for the vinegar for a quite different taste.  For an experienced palate, drizzle the finished salad with a tablespoon of mustard oil.

You could even go over the top and do all the above.

One thing I have seen done and have done myself on special occasions is to slice the vegetables, not dice them. You then present the dish as individual stacks of alternating onion, tomato and cucumber. As you assemble, sprinkle a few grains of salt on the tomato slices. When the stack is complete, drizzle with vinegar and sprinkle some jaggery over the stack. Very special presentation, although a bit time consuming. If your knife skills aren’t up to thinly sliced tomatoes or onions, maybe a mandolin is your best friend.

The recipe below is the simple, every-day version. It goes with just about any recipe in this book.