Photos: Watermelon tomato kachoombar salad

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Watermelon tomato kachoombar

If you're going to have just a few go-to summer salads in your repertoire, you might want to consider including this one for kachoombar, a refreshing chopped Indian salad that usually combines tomato, onion and chilies. I learned to love this simple dish from many hours of cooking and eating with my good friend, chef Suvir Saran. Suvir serves kachoombar as part of a larger feast to help cut the richness of the overall meal. It pairs particularly well with his masala fried chicken and buttermilk biscuits.

Because I'm always experimenting in the kitchen, I once added ripe watermelon chunks to my kachoombar. I loved watermelon as a child but never understood why my grandmother insisted on always shaking a bit of table salt over her slice and then seemed to enjoy it almost more than the rest of us. But when I tossed watermelon with the lime, salt and chilies, the flavors were explosive and I finally understood how just a touch of salt and the sweetness of fruit combine to make for a satisfying bite.

Read more: Kachoombar with watermelon -- a salad that highlights the flavors of summer