Indian Onion Salad is our favourite quick & easy condiment to serve with tandoori, korma, curry or vegetarian dal.

We’ve traveled throughout India and love to recreate our favourite dishes at home. Popular Indian dishes like Spicy Red Onion Salad are a quick and affordable dinner idea.

This simple spicy salad recipe can be made in less than 20 minutes and requires no cooking!

The dish is vegan, vegetarian, gluten free, egg free, nut free, dairy free and keto friendly. It keeps in the fridge for up to a week.

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Travel to India by Making Spicy Onion Salad at Home

I love traveling through Asia. My first visit to Asia had me living in South Korea for a year as a teacher and it’s where I was first introduced to fermented vegetables like kimchi.

After my contract ended in Seoul I travelled throughout Asia for 6 months, visiting the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, The Maldives and India.

I spent over a month traveling through India. I started in the capital, eating my way through the bustling markets and fine dining restaurants in Delhi. I then embarked on a magical weekend getaway to awe-inspiring Taj Mahal in Agra. In India’s north you’ll find plenty of barbecue as wheat based side dishes like scorched naan bread.

For the second half of my Indian adventured I explored the southern state of Kerala. The south is famous for its seafood, coconut, tropical fruits and rice based side dishes like crispy dosa. The colonial capital of Cochin was formerly run by the Portuguese. It’s also one of the only places in India you can find beef on a menu.

My India trip came to a close in the Bollywood capital, bustling and cosmopolitan Mumbai. The city is famous for its specialty street foods and fine dining restaurants at opulent luxury hotels. The Taj Mahal Palace in particular serves one of the world’s most famous afternoon teas.

What I found most fascinating is India’s distinct regional food cultures. Much like the regional cuisines found in France, Germany, Italy or Spain, each city in India had its own local speciality.

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Ingredients you'll need to make Indian Onion Salad. — Ingredients you’ll need to make Indian Onion Salad.

Where To Eat Indian Onion Salad

If you live in a large city in Canada or America you’ll likely have access to a local Indian restaurants that serve traditional Spicy Onion Salad.

Haven’t traveled to India before? It may be helpful to first sample Red Onion Salad at a local Indian restaurant to better understand how the dish is served. You can also assess the crunchy texture and spice level to better understand how to prepare it at home.

In Toronto, popular Indian restaurants that may serve Indian Onion Salad include Udupi Palace, Lahore Tikka House or Kothur Indian Cuisine.

Prepare Indian Onion Salad in a large mixing bowl.

What Is Indian Onion Salad?

Raw Onion Salad, also known as Onion Laccha, is popular in Northern India and can be made with red, white or sweet vidalia onions depending on your tastes.

Indian Onion Salad is known as Pyaaz Ka Lachcha in Hindi. It is a simple & easy salad made with thinly sliced raw onion, herbs spices, sugar and acid like vinegar or freshly squeezed lime and lemon juice

Our Indian Onion Salad recipe is vegetarian, vegan, gluten free, egg free, nut free, dairy free and keto friendly.

Stir herbs and spices with sliced red onions.

What To Eat With Indian Onion Salad

Travelers will find Indian Onion Salad commonly served in North Indian restaurants, markets or outdoor food stalls.

The crunchy salad is usually served with tandoori, grilled sourdough naan or creamy curry such as Shahi Korma or Shahi Paneer. We also love to serve this healthy vegan salad at breakfast with Indian Crepes.

Indian Onion Salad is treated more as a condiment as its acidity, spice and crunch pair well with grilled meats and creamy curries.

We do not suggest eating a bowl of raw onion salad on its own, like you would a Caesar Salad, unless you’re prepared to brush your teeth for an hour afterwards!

Once combined store Indian Onion Salad in the fridge and allow to marinate.

Tips on Making Indian Onion Salad

The most simple Indian Onion Salad recipes feature at minimum sliced raw onion, an acid like citrus juice or vinegar, white sugar, curry powder and fresh herbs like mint or cilantro.

Our recipe features both lime and rice wine vinegar but you can substitute for apple cider vinegar or freshly squeezed lemon juice.

We use white sugar as it’s the most wildly available but you can also use brown sugar, cane sugar or palm sugar. Unrefined sugars feature molasses, which provide an additional boost of flavour.

We’ve used a simple curry powder in this recipe but you can use any of your favourite dried curry blends.

We prefer using raw red onion, which must always be thinly sliced before tossing. You can cut the onion into slices or thing rings.

The salad when served at the table offers an eye-catching purple colour. We also love using sweet vidalia onions as they are less acrid than white cooking onions and are easier to digest when served raw.

We love doubling this recipe as the salad stores in the fridge for up to a week. As the onions marinate in the spicy vinegar herb dressing the flavours become more pronounced.

If you’re a lover of fresh herbs you can easily double or triple the quantity. Adding fresh herbs will help soften the overt raw onion flavour, making it easier to serve to picky kids.

If you have leftover Indian Onion Salad you might want to add it to a zip lock bag with your favourite grilled meat marinade. We suggest pairing the leftover raw onion salad with high quality pork tenderloin, beef steaks or plump prawns.

If you love spicy food feel free to add sliced red chili, jalapeno peppers or a few drops of your favourite hot sauce.

We love to get creative with our Indian Onion Salad recipe. It’s fun to transform the marinated raw onions into other yummy dishes. We suggest finely chopping the leftover onions and mixing them into a bowl of Greek yogurt. You can serve the creamy onion dip with grilled naan, nachos, slices of fresh vegetables or sourdough bread slices at a summer barbecue or potluck dinner party.

Serve Indian Onion Salad as a crunchy condiment with a slice of lime.

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Serve Indian Onion Salad with curries and dal.

Best Indian Onion Salad Recipe

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4.15 from 14 votes

Indian Onion Salad

Looking to learn how to make quick & easy Indian Onion Salad? Our healthy recipe features sliced red onion, herbs, spices, lime and vinegar.

Prep Time25

Total Time25

Course: Condiment, Salad

Cuisine: Asian, Indian

Keyword: Cucumber and Onion Salad Recipe, Indian Onion Salad, indian salad, vegan salad, vegetarian salad

Servings:

Calories: 24kcal

Equipment

French knife
mixing bowl
measuring cup
measuring spoon
Wooden spoon

Ingredients

1 Large red onion thinly sliced into rings
1/4 tsp Red chili powder
1/2 tsp Curry powder
2 tsp Lime juice
2 tsp Rice vinegar
1/4 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Black pepper
3 tbsp Cilantro chopped
3 tbsp Mint chopped

Instructions

Slice red onion into thin rings or round and place in a large mixing bowl.
Add red chili powder, masala, chopped mint leaves and cilantro.
Add lime juice, vinegar and salt & pepper to taste.
Mix until fully combined.

Nutrition

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