Our kachumbari recipe makes a Kenyan salad of tomato, onion, avocado, cucumber, and coriander dressed with citrus juice and olive oil and given a kick with fresh chilli, chilli flakes or curry powder. At its simplest, kachumbari is a tomato and onion salad or relish with cooks adding any combo of avocado, cucumber or carrot. In Kenya, kachumbari goes on the table for most meals, serving as a refreshing side to stew, curry, barbecue fish, and biriyani.
The handmade dolls beside my Kenyan kachumbari salad were a ‘thank you’ gift from Masai Mara villagers from whom I’d bought enough beaded jewellery to fill a treasure chest. We’d gone to Kenya‘s Masai Mara to go on safari on the yearlong global grand tour dedicated to slow, local and experiential travel that launched Grantourismo. We were hoping to see the Great Migration and spot ‘The Big Five’, and see the elusive leopards and African lions and elephants and giraffes, and…
We were so obsessed with wildlife spotting that unlike other places we settled into for two weeks on that trip, we didn’t do much cooking or share Kenyan recipes here. It’s not that we didn’t enjoy Kenyan food, we did! We loved the coastal Swahili food we sampled with its Portuguese, Persian, Arabian, and Indian influences, especially the curries. We just wished we’d had more opportunities to try Kenyan food at lodges where crowd-pleasing European and Asian dishes dominated menus.
Sorting through suitcases at mum’s recently, I found mementoes and notebooks from the African leg of that yearlong journey, including notes on Kenyan recipes I’d prised out of the cook at our Diani Beach cottage. Unfortunately he hadn’t been so keen to teach us local dishes, or even let us in the kitchen, unlike the many other generous cooks that year, from Jamila in Marrakech to Desak in Bali. So I thought it was time I share recipes for Kenyan dishes we enjoyed that trip, starting with this kachumbari recipe.
If you enjoy a garden salad, farmers salad or village salad, which at its most basic consists of any combo of tomato, cucumber, lettuce, onion, and/or fresh herbs, you should enjoy kachumbari. And if you are a fan, try our recipes for a classic Russian garden salad, Greek feta salad called horiatiki (fantastic with smoky souvlaki), our Middle Eastern farmers salad, fattoush and tabbouleh, and this Thai herb salad by one of Bangkok’s best chefs.
But before I tell you more about this kachumbari recipe, I have a favour to ask. Grantourismo is reader-supported. If you’ve enjoyed our recipes, please consider supporting Grantourismo. You could buy a handcrafted KROK, the best mortar and pestle ever; book a cooking class or meal with locals on EatWith; or buy something on Amazon, such as these cookbooks for culinary travellers, classic cookbooks for serious cooks, or gifts for Asian food lovers and picnic lovers.
Looking for more cooking inspiration? We’ve got thousands of recipes in our archives from around the world from places we’ve lived, worked, travelled, and loved. And note that you can save your favourite recipes in a private account by clicking on the heart on the right of the post. Now let’s tell you all about this kachumbari recipe.
Kachumbari Recipe for a Kenyan Salad of Tomato, Onion, Avocado and Coriander
I’m still in Australia taking care of my mother and, aside from desperately missing my husband and my cat, I’m desperately missing the spicy Southeast Asian food we usually cook and eat at home in Siem Reap. Mum can no longer handle heat, not even pepper, and is happy to live on pastas and dumplings. So I’ve started to occasionally cook two separate meals for dinner, so I can make myself a spiced soup or curry.
But rather than cook the many curries we have here on Grantourismo I thought I’d cook and share recipes we haven’t published yet. Fortunately, now that I’ve moved mum into the heart of Bendigo, I have half a dozen Asian grocers within a few blocks of mum’s apartment, everything from a Karen mini-mart and Korean/Japanese supermarket to not one but two Indian bazaars and a fantastic Asian ’emporium’ specialising in Southeast Asian and Chinese ingredients.
And after discovering all my old notebooks from our travels, including our yearlong ‘slow, local, experiential travel’ adventure that launched this site way back in 2010, I was inspired to cook some of the dishes we hadn’t got around to sharing that year. I thought I’d start with recipes for the African dishes we’d loved, including a Kenyan curry, or rather, a Swahili curry, as it’s cooked right along the East African coast.
So why am I talking about curry and not salad? Well, this recipe for kachumbari makes a refreshing Kenyan salad that typically accompanies a curry, spiced stew, or biriyani, but is also served with barbecued fish, seafood or meats. In fact, for one of the most popular Kenyan curries, the chicken is grilled before it’s immersed in the spiced gravy. Kenyan curries aren’t quick and easy, but make them properly and you’ll be rewarded with deep flavour.
I really wish we’d been able to share a curry in Kenya or learn to cook any local dishes in Kenya, as we had in Cape Town, where we learnt to cook Cape Malay food in a cooking class in colourful Bo Kaap. Terence then cooked the classic Cape Town stew called a tomato bredie in our Camps Bay kitchen. There’s something about cooking local food in the place it comes from. For starters, you can buy local ingredients locally, such as the spice mix we bought in Essaouira for Terence’s Moroccan lamb tagine.
But wildlife watching kept us busy during our two weeks in Kenya. After the Masai Mara, we did a road trip to Tsavo West National Park and Salt Lick Safari Lodge, where we went on safari again. And we also did a cultural tour to a local village, sipped sundowners on a hilltop to live local music (magic!) and planted some trees at a wildlife sanctuary as part of a reforestation project, as we were committed to ‘giving back’ in some way to every place we settled into that year.
Our stay at Diana Beach had also been challenging on a number of levels, and we struggled with how to write about a place where tourism development had such a negative impact on the habitat of local wildlife, but that’s another story! All of this is to say that we didn’t not share Kenya recipes as we had everywhere else because we didn’t love it, but a combination of circumstances prevented us from getting in the kitchen and cooking Kenyan recipes, so let’s fix that.
Just a few tips to making this kachumbari recipe for a Kenyan salad of tomato, onion, avocado, cucumber, and coriander, as it’s a quick and easy salad that comes together in 15 minutes or so.
Tips to Making this Kachumbari Recipe for a Kenyan Salad
I only have a few tips to making this kachumbari recipe for a Kenyan salad of tomato, onion, avocado, cucumber, and coriander, as it’s a super easy salad that comes together quickly in around 15 minutes or so. Let’s begin with the ingredients.
Ingredients
Always use the freshest, best quality ingredients you can source (and afford) for a garden salad.
Tomato and Onion
This Kenyan garden salad is all about the tomato and onion, and in its simplest form, kachumbari is a tomato and onion side salad or relish that accompanies a spiced dish. Use sweet ripe tomatoes and red onion for sweetness and less sharpness.
Avocado and Cucumber
Kachumbari also takes the form of a big garden salad or chopped salad of predominantly tomato and onion, with any combination of avocado, cucumber and/or carrot, and usually fresh coriander. I’ve skipped the carrot as we weren’t served kachumbari with carrot, and I think there’s enough crunch from the cucumbers.
Green Chillies, Chilli Flakes or Curry Powder
While this Kenyan garden salad is intended to be served as a cooling side, kachumbari is sometimes given a kick of heat with fresh chillies, usually mild green chillies, or sprinkle of chilli flakes or curry powder. If I’m eating this salad on its own, I tend to sprinkle on some chilli flakes or curry powder, but skip the added warmth if I’m serving it with a Kenyan curry.
Instructions
Like most garden salads or farmer’s salads, a Kenyan kachumbari is quick and easy to make, but let’s run through the steps.
Prepare the Onion
Kenyan cooks nearly always reduce the sharpness of the onion, so to a small bowl, add the half teaspoon of salt, cup of water and sliced onion, combine well, then set aside while you prep the other ingredients. When you’re done, drain the onions well so they’re not wet.
Make the Salad Dressing
Meanwhile, while the onion is soaking, make the salad dressing. I make all my salad dressings in jars, so after adding the ingredients I can screw the lid on and give the jar a good shake.
So, to a small lidded jar, add the extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, and pinch of sea salt; if you’d like to give it a kick of heat, add the optional chilli flakes or curry powder. Screw the lid on and shake well.
Assemble the Salad
To a big salad bowl, add the drained onion, tomatoes, cucumber, dressing, and fresh chopped coriander, and toss to combine. Gently stir in the diced avocado at the last minute. If you’re making the salad ahead, don’t add the avocado now. Refrigerate it until you’re ready to serve, then gently stir in the diced avocado just before serving.
Serve the Salad
Like most traditional garden salads, kachumbari goes on the table for most family meals, serving as a refreshing accompaniment to a spiced curry or stew, barbecue fish or biriyani. We’ll share recipes for an easy Kenyan biriyani and Swahili chicken curry soon.
Kachumbari Recipe for a Kenyan Salad of Tomato, Onion, Avocado and Coriander
Equipment
Ingredients
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 cup water
- 1 small red onion - thinly sliced
- 3 tomatoes - diced
- 1 small cucumber - diced
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil - or more to taste
- 2 tbsp lemon juice - or more to taste, or lime juice
- 1 pinch sea salt - or more to taste
- ½ tsp chilli flakes - optional
- ½ tsp curry powder - optional
- 1 mild green chilli - optional, finely diced
- 1 cup fresh coriander - leaves only, roughly chopped
- 1 ripe avocado - pitted, peeled, diced
Instructions
- To a small bowl, add the half teaspoon of salt, cup of water and sliced onion, combine well to reduce the sharpness of the onion, then set aside while you prep the other ingredients. When you’re done, drain the onions well so they’re not wet.
- In a small lidded jar, combine the extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, and pinch of sea salt; if you’d like to give it a kick of heat, add the optional chilli flakes or curry powder. Screw the lid on and shake well.
- To a salad bowl, add the onion, tomatoes, cucumber, dressing, and coriander, and toss to combine. Gently stir in the diced avocado and refrigerate until you’re ready to serve.
Nutrition
Please do let us know if you make our Kenyan kachumbari recipe for a salad of tomato, onion, avocado, cucumber, and coriander, as we’d love to know how it turns out for you.
