You can make this easy Indian salad in under 5 minutes with a few simple/easy to find ingredients.
BEST Indian Onion Salad for Poppadoms
A basket of poppadoms alongside a trio of onion salad and two chutneys signals the start of your Indian feast in any Indian restaurant! Onion salads provide texture and bite and enhance the flavour of the Indian mains. If you’re looking for a quick side dish to accompany your homemade Indian meal, then this is the salad that you need to try! This particular style of raw onion ring salad is served with fried poppadoms, Indian mint sauce or curries but is versatile enough to be added to burgers, wraps and other recipes that ask for onions.
What is an Indian Onion Salad
Indian Onion Salad or Lachha Pyaaz is a raw onion salad recipe that is served as a side to an Indian meal and is made from raw onion rings or slices, lemon juice, fresh herbs and spices. It is also known as pyaaz salad or lachha pyaaz ka kachumber in Hindi. Pyaaz, Piyaz or pyaj are the hindi words for all kinds of onions available. The salad is naturally vegan, gluten-free and is no-cook.
Why you will love this recipe:
So quick and easy – it’s a great everyday salad No cook recipe – no cooking is required for these recipe Suitable for all dietary needs – the salad is plant based, suitable for vegans and vegetarians, gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free, nut-free and keto-friendly. Easy to scale up or down Easy to find ingredients Budget friendly
What goes in Indian Onion Salad
Full ingredients with measurements are available in the recipe card below at the end of this post
Onion – you can make this salad with white, red or sweet onions such as sweet vindalia. You can either slice the onions into rings or into half slices. The onions then need prepping in ice water.
In the UK, sweet onion varieties include Ailsa Craig Onions
Lemon/Lime juice – use freshly squeezed where possible
Red chilli powder or green chilli – you can optionally add a pinch of spice powders like red chilli powder or finely chopped green chilli.
Chaat Masala – chaat masala is a tangy spice blend (not spicy at all). It has a very distinct and recognizable taste and is heavily used in Indian street food items such as smashed potato chaat, surprisingly it was soooo good in this chaat masala hummus too.
If you don’t have any on hand, use mango powder, dried pomegranate powder or black salt (kala namak) or you may get away with using a pinch of garam masala or Madras curry powder
Roasted Cumin Powder – (optional) also known as jeera powder. If you can not find chaat masala use this.
Herbs – fresh coriander (cilantro) and mint leaves are the herbs used in Indian onion salad
Salt – to taste (if using black salt, go easy on this)
How to serve Onion Salad Indian Takeaway style
How you serve this onion salad depends on whether you want to serve like Indian restaurants or British Indian Restaurant. If you are serving it North Indian restaurant style, then it will go great with curries such as matar paneer, daal makhani , Bhindi Bhaji and garlic and coriander naan If you are serving it British Indian restaurant style then prepare it finely chopped and serve with fried poppadoms and poppadom dips like mango chutney and mint yogurt chutney. I prefer to make this salad fresh on the day rather than store it in the fridge. Pair this salad with your everyday Indian vegetarian meal. I love to make a thali consisting of Multigrain flour roti/chapatti, easy spinach and chana dal and cabbage and potato curry In Gujarat, India, thinly cut onion slices (without any spices powders) are served with Daal Vada (split moong lentils fritters) along with fried green chillies. Also Finely chopped onions added on top of the Pani Puri (Indian street food) by roadside vendors in India. I love to add on Instant Pot Afghan Lubya and Red Kidney Bean and Coconut Curry too
British Indian Restaurant Style Onion Salad
A variation of this Indian Onion Salad is served in the UK in British Curry Houses and Indian takeaways. Before the starter appears, customers are served finely sliced onion salad with poppadoms, green mint yogurt chutney and mango chutney. The onion salad is made with finely chopped white onion and finely chopped coriander. The salad sometimes includes very small pieces of cucumber and tomato. In some restaurants, the onion is mildly spiced with Indian masala the same as this recipe. Finely diced onion is easy to scoop up with poppadom and load up with dips/chutney. Honestly, I end up making a meal of this and fill up before the starter has even arrived!
Indian Onion Salad with Mint Sauce
For an alternative British Indian Restaurant (BIR) onion salad, you can toss these onions in jarred mint sauce. British mint sauce is a refreshing condiment that adds tang and zingy flavours.
Tomato Onion Salad
Add thinly sliced tomato rounds to this salad, it tastes absolutely delicious and adds nutritional value too.
Indian Onion Cucumber Salad
You can add chopped cucumber to this salad along with the onion.
Kachumber salad
Kachumber is a wonderful Indian salad consisting of finely chopped onion, tomato, cucumber and coriander. It is finished with a squeeze of lemon juice.
Sarlas/Challas
This recipe hails from Kerala India. Sliced onions and cut green chillies are served as an onion salad
Tandoori Onion Salad
This onion salad is sometimes called tandoori onion salad as it is served with tandoori style dishes.
Sirke Wale Pyaaz
This Indian style pickled onion salad is made by pickling small red onions in vinegar then served alongside meals.
Onion Salad with Oil
In Himachal Pradesh, an area in India, some add a teaspoon of mustard oil to this salad.
How to make Indian Onion Salad
Make this Indian Onion Salad in just a two steps before you are going to serve your Indian meal. Peel the skin of the onions, and wash it under the running water. Slice using a sharp knife in to rings or dice them (to serve with papad and chutney). Slice as thin as possible. If you wish, wear cut-resistant gloves to protect your hands (better safe than sorry!) Separate the onion rings using your index finger and thumb. You can use all the rings, even the small ones.
To soak or not to soak… that is the question
It all depends on your preference of flavour and/or the time you have available. Soaking the onion first will mellow and tone down the strong flavour. Some people aren’t a fan, and some don’t mind it. If you want to make this onion salad in less than 5 minutes, then I suggest not soaking the onions. If you have soaked the onions, after 20 minutes remove them and pat dry with a kitchen paper towel to get rid of all the extra moisture. In a separate mixing bowl toss the onion rings with all the spice powders (which ever you’d like to use). Mix it and sprinkle with herbs.
What to do with leftover Onion Salad
Add them to the plain yogurt to make onion raita or pan fry with a little oil until light brown and use as a topping for burgers or hot dogs. If you have sliced them thick, make onion rings by dipping them in to the batter and either deep fry or air fry. Or make world famous Onion Bhaji 🙂
Other Onion Recipes
Spring Onion Kadhi (spicy soup) Pyaz ke Parathe Do Pyaza Baingan (eggplant) As always if you make this recipe, be sure to leave me a comment, rate this recipe and tag me on Instagram @jcookingodyssey or #jcookingodyssey. I love seeing all your photos of my recipe recreations! Don’t forget to follow me on social media using the buttons below – I can’t wait to see you all there!
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