Kachumber Salad (Indian Salad)
Kachumber Salad Recipe – Toss fresh vegetables with mint and lemon juice for a simple but refreshing, crunchy, and flavorful cucumber salad that’s perfect to serve with your favorite Indian dishes.
Why We Love This Recipe
Every hearty meal needs a little something to lighten things up! This Indian Kachumber Salad is a classic raw vegetable recipe made with cucumbers, tomatoes, onion, and often fresh herbs like cilantro and mint, and even sliced radishes.
Like pico de gallo in Mexican cuisine, refreshing kachumber salad is often served alongside curries and heavy rice dishes to offer a light fresh flavor to the meal.
Whip it up (well, chop it up and toss) in mere minutes – it’s even a great recipe to make ahead. You can serve it as a topping or side dish with any Indian entree, or spoon it over fresh greens to liven up a simple midweek lunch salad!
You will also find all sorts of unconventional uses for this Indian cucumber salad, such as a fresh topping for burgers, or even a taco or burrito.
Ingredients You Need
- English cucumber – chopped
- Fresh tomato – diced (like plum tomatoes or even cherry tomatoes)
- Red onion – diced
- Radish – diced (optional, but highly suggested)
- Cilantro – chopped (AKA coriander leaves)
- Mint leaves – chopped
- Lemon juice – freshly squeezed (or lime juice)
- Kashmiri chili – or cayenne
- Salt and black pepper – a pinch of each to taste
How to Make Kachumber Indian Salad
Set out a medium mixing bowl. Finely dice the cucumber, tomato, red onion, and radishes into ¼-inch cubes. Chop the fresh cilantro and mint leaves.
Add the chopped tomatoes and cucumber to a mixing bowl.
Then add the diced red onion, radishes, and chopped cilantro.
Lastly, add fresh lemon juice and spices.
Get the Complete (Printable) Kachumber Indian Salad Recipe Below. Enjoy!
Toss to combine.
Serve the salad immediately, or cover and chill until ready to enjoy.
Serving Suggestions
Enjoy chilled kachumber salad as a side or salsa-like topping with your favorite Indian entrees. Here are a few classic dishes we love:
- Instant Pot Butter Chicken Curry
- Roasted Indian Fish and Creamy Curried Cauliflower
- Authentic Paneer Tikka Masala
- Instant Pot Tandori Chicken Drumsticks
- Easy Chicken Madras Curry
For a complete meal, enjoy your entree and salad with other side dishes like Raita (Indian yogurt sauce), fluffy Basmati Rice, and warm homemade Naan.
OR serve this healthy gluten-free, oil-free, vegan recipe as a chunky dip with chips!
Frequently Asked Questions
Kachumber is the Hindi word for any simple, rustic dish consisting of chopped and combined fresh veggies.
Kashmiri chili (a type of red chili powder) in this recipe does have a good bit of heat, but isn’t terribly spicy. You can also use cayenne pepper if you prefer more spiciness. But for a completely mild dish you can leave out any of the peppers.
Yes, it’s great for making ahead and meal prepping! You can put it together and refrigerate a few days before serving. The flavors become more intense as everything sits together in the refrigerator.
Kachumber salad will keep well for up to a week in the fridge stored in an airtight container. But note that the veggies will be most crisp for the first few days.
Sure, you can! Consider adding finely diced carrots, green chilies, fresh red chilies, serrano peppers, bell peppers, or parsley. You could season it with cumin powder, black salt, jalapeno,
Looking for More Refreshing Salad Recipes? Be Sure to Also Try:
- Creamy Cucumber Salad with Dill
- Horiatiki (Greek Village Salad)
- Chunky Mediterranean Salad
- Israeli Chopped Salad
- Healthy Rainbow Chopped Salad
Kachumber Salad Recipe (Indian Salad)
Ingredients
- ¾ cup diced English cucumber
- ¾ cup diced fresh tomato
- 1/3 cup diced red onion
- 1/3 cup diced radish optional
- 1/3 cup chopped cilantro
- 2 tablespoons chopped mint leaves optional
- 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
- 1/8-1/4 teaspoon Kashmiri chili or cayenne
- Salt and pepper
Instructions
- Set out a medium mixing bowl. Finely dice the cucumber, tomato, red onion, and radishes into ¼-inch cubes.
- Chop the fresh cilantro and mint leaves.
- Combine all fresh ingredients in the bowl. Drizzle lemon juice over the top and sprinkle with Kashmiri chili. Then add a generous sprinkle of salt and pepper. Toss well, taste, and add additional lemon juice, salt, or pepper as desired.
- Covered refrigerate until ready to use.
a great set of ingredients, love this salad, had never heard of it before, but works for me, the mint too, thank you!
My mom made a version of this, but without radishes, hot pepper, or lemon