Sunday
Apr202008
Indian Cucumber and Coconut Salad
Sunday, April 20, 2008 at 5:54PM 
I like my dals with something refreshing on the side. Lately, I'm all about this salad, adapted from Das Sreedharan's "The New Taste of India", a fantastic cookbook filled with delicious vegetarian recipes from Southern India.
The salad takes a bit of chopping, but it's totally worth it, both for its flavor, and for the rave reviews it gets everytime I serve it.
Indian Cucumber and Coconut Salad
For the salad:
1 cucumber, peeled and finely chopped
2 Tbsp desiccated coconut (or more to taste)
1 carrot, finely chopped
1 tomato, finely chopped
1 fresh green chilli, finely chopped
a small bunch of fresh cilantro (i.e. coriander), finely chopped
salt
For the dressing:
2 tsp olive oil
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 dried red chilli, halved
1/2 tsp asafoetida
~10 dried curry leaves
juice from half a lemon
- Place all the salad ingredients in a bowl and set aside in the fridge.
- Put the oil in a large frying pan with the mustard seeds, cumin seeds, red chilli, asafoetida and curry leaves. Turn the heat up to medium and wait for the seeds to start sizzling and smelling delicious.
- When the mustard seeds begin to pop, pour the oil and seeds over the salad. Add the lemon juice and some salt to taste and mix thoroughly. If you can wait, cool in the fridge before serving.
Reader Comments (12)
[...] Crossposted to SmarterFitter.com [...]
YUM!!
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Monica, what a gorgeous salad and great combination of ingredients. I'll be making this one soon. Looks delicious!
Thanks! I highly recommend eating it with some dal. They are soooo good together. Let me know how it goes!
Hi Monica! My husband made this salad for us - and ohhh, is it ever GOOD! I couldn't imagine the combination of flavors together when I first read the recipe but it sure sounded wonderfully interesting. Will definitely be making this again. Thanks so much for sharing it. And we went with your suggestion to have it on the side with dal - it was such a delicious meal. :D
Cassie, I'm SOOOO glad you liked it. I don't suppose you took a picture? Yours are always so much better than mine. ;-)
Hi again, Monica! Thanks for the nice comment on my pictures. Yours is very nice!! My husband actually took a picture of the salad after he made it. http://www.veggiemealplans.com/archive/54-recipes-to-try/1185-recipes-to-try#comment-1629" rel="nofollow">I posted it here. It's really a super recipe. Glad we finally tried it! :)
(Hope the link worked! :))
[...] am slowly adding to my lexicon of tasty Indian recipes. First there was Dal, then there was Cucumber and Coconut Salad, now there is Eggplant [...]
[...] Vegetarian Recipes from Southern India ) is one of my favorites, and I frequently make their savoy cabbage and cucumber and coconut salad. Even though Rasa is right around the corner from our flat, we don’t eat there very often [...]
[...] is to go to India and learn to cook from the people who invented dal, channa masala, and numerous other favorite foods of mine. Last night at Hot Stuff, I felt pretty [...]
[...] is to go to India and learn to cook from the people who invented dal, channa masala, and numerous other favorite foods of mine. Last night at Hot Stuff, I felt pretty [...]