Kachumber salad, a zesty onion and tomato salad

Introduction

Kachumber is a gorgeous refreshing and zesty salad. Do not be fooled by how easy and quick this salad it to make. You may only need a mere 4 ingredients, but you will have yourself a salad packed with punch. This recipe has Indian origins, it is something that made it’s way into my family’s culinary cuisine due to their migration journey through East Africa.

I do love the fact that my family’s migration journey has added to a diverse and exciting range of foods that we still eat here in Britain. Who knew we would be still enjoying the diversity of East Africa decades later.

How to serve kachumber

When I got married, my husband had never tried this and did not know what it was. Now he will not eat pilau rice without asking for kachumber! Traditionally, well in my house, kachumber was always served with pilau rice. The spiced rice is offset beautifully against a tangy kachumber salad.

Our celebratory family meals (which included all birthday’s Eid’s and even Christmas get togethers) always involved a pilau rice, which was served with, shorba, zarda, boondi raita and kachumber. This was always the ultimate flavour fest on a plate. If you haven’t tried this combination, you must at least once. The mix of flavours, sweet and savoury and tangy, cool and refreshing all in one bite is really divine. My mouth is actually watering at the thought!

Excitingly, this salad does not need to be restricted to just pilau rice. One week after making a chicken pilau, I did have a bit of kachumber left over which I decided to add into a open smoked salmon sandwich I was making for lunch. Oh my goodness, this was probably the best sandwich ever. That lemony tang against the salmon worked so very well.

Variations to making kachumber

This salad is beatifully simple and just requires tomatoes and red onions. I like to slice them into moon shapes, but you can chop them finer if you prefer a finer texture.

You can also add in some cucumber for an added dimension. Salted cucumbers are always divine. You could also add in some cumin seeds or nigella seeds (kalonji) for extra spice and a slightly crunchy element to this salad. It really is versatile and you can experiment with any flavours you like. However, a good kachumber salad always has tomatoes and onions, these are non negotiable ingredients!

Preparation

This is a salad you should definitely try to make the night before eating. Usually salads lose their splendour after a few hours of being cut. But this salad honestly gets better the longer it sits in the lemon juice. The tomato and onion flavours start to pop the longer they have sat in the salt lemon juice.

It is also great to get the salad made and out of the way the night before entertaining, it’s one less thing to do on the day. Whenever I am having guests over, I would make this kachumber salad and store it in an airtight container and keep it in the fridge. Then on the day of entertaining all that is left it so pop it into a serving dish and serve. You can always sprinkle on some freshly chopped coriander for that lovely splash of green.

See my video on Youtube, Instagram or TikTok to see how to make this dish.

Ingredients

• 2 medium sized tomatoes, sliced
• 1 medium red onion, sliced
• 1/2 tsp salt (to taste)
• 8 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 green chilli, finely chopped (optional)

Method

• Add the onions into a bowl and add the salt.
• Give the salt a rub into the onions.
• Then add the tomatoes, lemon juice and green chilli. Mix through.
• Leave to sit for at least an hour in the fridge before serving.