Our cookbook of the week is Zaika: Vegan Recipes from India by chef Romy Gill. Over the next three days, we’ll feature more recipes from the book and an interview with the author.
Usually made with tomatoes, onion (or shallots) and cucumber, kachumber is a favourite throughout India. In her version, adapted to showcase readily available produce in the U.K., Romy Gill adds cabbage and green apple for crunch, and pomegranate seeds for their juicy sweetness and vibrant colour.
“Mum would put pomegranate sometimes in it, and coriander (cilantro), and lime or lemon juice, whatever they had,” says Gill. “But when I moved to the U.K., I experimented and put cabbage in it. I think cabbage works amazingly well with the flavours.”
Growing up in Burnpur, a town in West Bengal, kachumber was a common side dish on her family’s table. It goes well with so many different dishes, says Gill, because of its refreshing flavours and crisp texture.
“The combination of salt, lemon and those ingredients is just beautiful. They work so well together,” she says. Just as Gill calls for green apple instead of the sweet and sour raw mango her mother would have used, feel free to create your own version based on the contents of your fridge.
“It’s simple for people to make,” says Gill, “and you can come up with your own variations as well if you have something else.”
KACHUMBER SALAD
10 minutes
1/2 small cucumber, deseeded and chopped into fine batons
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
40 g white hard cabbage, shredded
1/2 green apple, cored and sliced
Seeds of 1/2 pomegranate
Juice of 1 lime
1/2 tsp (2 mL) salt
1 tsp (5 mL) chopped fresh cilantro
Step 1
Add all the ingredients to a serving bowl and toss everything together well. Eat immediately.
Serves: 3–4
Excerpted from Zaika: Vegan Recipes from India by Romy Gill. Text © Romy Gill 2019. First published in Great Britain in 2019 by Seven Dials, an imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd. Reproduced by arrangement with the publisher. All rights reserved.
Copyright Postmedia Network Inc., 2020
