salads

This salad has many versions, from the Middle East to Southern Asia. But the formula is standard: finely chopped onion, cucumber and tomato with different herbs and spices. Reem Kassis’s Palestinian Table’s Palestinian Salad includes tomatoes, cucumber chillies, lemons, olive oil and a generous four tablespoons of mint.😁

The classic Indian Kachumber salad includes cumin and fresh coriander drizzled with plenty of lemon juice.

Of course, kachumber is delicious in the summer. However, it comes into its own during the Autumn and Spring when the tomatoes and cucumbers are not at their ripest. Mint and cumin bring out the flavour of vegetables even when they are not at their tastiest.

Salad Ingredients and Variables

This summer, we had great fun with this salad, swapping tomatoes for peaches and adding pomegranate seeds or chopped preserved lemons. It’s so versatile. Delicious in sandwiches and an excellent accompaniment to any curry or meat dish.

Ideally, make the kachumber in advance and leave it to marinate in the fridge before serving. Add the oil, lemon juice, and salt just before you serve. Adding salt or lemon too far in advance will make the tomatoes watery. It is particularly delicious with rice or any dahl recipe and is a fabulous side salad for grilled lamb chops or just about any grilled fish.

Experiment with your recipe. Feel free to change the ingredients according to the season—spring onions in the Spring, red/yellow onions in the Autumn, peaches in the summer, etc.

I first came across Kachumber salad a long time ago …. probably around 1994. It was featured in Rick Stein’s Taste of the Sea book under basic recipes. His recipe features only tomatoes, vinegar, cumin, cayenne powder and fresh coriander. It is particularly good with fish – his tandoori monkfish, I believe.😉

More salads here

Kachumber Salad

A versatile and easy salad using cucumbers, tomatoes and onions with cumin and chilli, coriander, basil or mint.

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Course: salad

Cuisine: Asian, Indian, Middle Eastern

Keyword: easy, vegetarian, versatile

Prep Time: 10 minutes minutes

chill: 1 hour hour

Servings:4 people

Author: The Wild Epicurean

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Ingredients

• 4 large tomatoes
• 1 large cucumber – peeled and de-seed if you prefer It can make the salad too watery if the cucumber has too many seeds.
• ¼ preserved lemon, diced into cubes
• 1 onion (red or yellow)
• 1 bunch chopped fresh mint leaves (3 tbsp)
• ½-1 small banana chilli – finely sliced
• ½ tsp ground cumin
• small bunch fresh coriander (1 tbsp)
• 3-4 tbsp olive oil
• 2-3 tbsp fresh lemon juice
• salt
• freshly ground black pepper optional

Instructions

• Chop all the tomatoes and cucumbers into small cubes and put them into a large salad bowl
• Chop the onion very finely. Add the sliced chillies and preserved lemon.
• Sprinkle over the ground cumin, mint and half the coriander. Toss lightly.
• If not serving straight away – cover and leave in the fridge.
• When you are ready to serve, sprinkle with salt and drizzle with oil and lemon juice. Use less oil, lemon and salt. Taste and add to your liking. We have it drowning in olive oil, but not to everyone's liking! Toss lightly and garnish with the rest of the coriander.

Variations

• Swap fresh chillies for chilli powder or add both!
• Swap nectarines or peaches for tomatoes.
• Use fresh basil or parsley as alternatives for coriander and mint.
• Replace onions with spring onions.
• Go for only tomatoes 'a la Rick Stein' and replace lemon juice with white wine vinegar.
• Replace the preserved lemons with fresh unwaxed lemons. Slice very thinly and cut into strips – you can remove the rind or leave it on.
• Replace lemon with lime juice or white wine vinegar.

Notes

Lots of options here – but the basic recipe is the same. Remove the chilli or preserved lemon if it is not your thing, and swap the herbs for those to hand or that you prefer.

This recipe makes quite a generous salad – probably more like 4-6, so please scale up or down.