Koshambari Salads are perfect Summer “round out the meal” salads as they contain both cooling vegetables and lentils for protein. So often the advice given to vegetarians is written by non-vegetarians and therefore includes only vegetable-based dishes without lentils, grains, soy products, nuts, seeds and so forth, in sufficient proportions for a balanced vegetarian diet.

The great thing about traditional Indian vegetarian cuisines is that they are naturally balanced in all sorts of ways – nutritionally, texturally, flavour-wise, ayurvedically, …. Forget the current Western style fashions in India, like the addiction to Oreo biscuits and too much street food (how can I criticise either of these!), the combinations of grains, lentils, paneer and vegetables is naturally balanced.

Koshambari is the perfect Summer salad, with cooling ingredients and the surprising inclusion of soaked but raw lentils, either chana dal or mung dal. Today we use chana dal with carrots, cucumber and green mango. Delicious. While raw foods are not common in India, the occasional Kosumalli makes an appearance. Raw food is not sanctioned by Ayurveda – so there are versions of this salad that lightly saute the ingredients. You can do this too, should you desire.

We have compiled 30 Great Mid Summer Salads for you, so it is very easy to vary your salads each day.

Similar recipes include Horse Gram Salad with Feta and Tomatoes, Green Mango Rice, Sweet and Sour Cucumber Salad, Carrot Koshambari, Cucumber and Mung Kosumalli, and Daikon Salad with Coconut and Nigella Seed.

Browse all of our Koshambari recipes and Indian Salads. All of our Indian recipes are here, and our Indian Essentials are here. Or explore our Mid Summer recipes.

Cucumber, Carrot and Green Mango Koshambari

ingredients

0.25 cup chana dal, soaked for at least 4 hours or overnight

0.5 cup carrot, grated

0.5 cup cucumber, grated

0.25 cup green mango (sour or sour-sweet), grated

1 green chilli, finely chopped, or to taste

1 Tblspn coconut, grated

0.5 tspn jaggery or sugar

sea salt and black or white pepper to taste

a few coriander leaves to garnish (optional)

tadka

1 tspn ghee

0.5 tspn brown mustard seeds

1 tspn urad dal

pinch asafoetida

8-10 curry leaves

method

Drain the chana dal and allow to dry for 10 mins. You can pat it dry a little with kitchen paper towel. Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl.

Make a tadka by popping the mustard seeds in ghee heated in a tadka pan. Then add the urad dal and asafoetida. When the dal turns golden, add the curry leaves and after the spluttering, pour over the salad.

Garnish the salad with grated coconut or chopped coriander leaves.

Serve with rasam and poriyal for a delicious lunch.

recipe notes and alternatives

Beetroot (grated) can be added.

The chana dal can be chopped in the food processor a little before adding to the salad.