Cucumber Salad or Khamang Kakdi

We bought lots of cucumbers around 2 weeks back. I guess I always buy more cucumbers thinking that I may put them on eyes  for reducing dark circles. But as it turns out, I am too lazy to try them out :). Usually I use cucumbers in typical Kerala style dishes like Sambar, Avial or Vellarika Kichadi. I was getting bored with preparing them every time. I wanted to try something new. So, I went google searching for some easy and quick recipes. If nothing worked out, I was just going to cut them up and eat them raw as a plain salad. I had to use them somehow as they may rot soon :)

I found the recipes for a cucumber salad from Maharashtrian cuisine. The dish is called Khamang Kakdi or Cucumber Salad. I do not know much about Maharashtrian cuisine and this is the first time I am trying them out. Besides It looked really easy to make this one and didnt take much time as well :). Now that is exactly what I was looking for.   I went through several of its recipes and found all of them more or less of the same. I adapted one from the blog vegrecipesofindia. You can find the detailed recipe here. This recipe is really good and I didnt make much modifications to it.. The picture will be posted later... 

My version of the cucumber salad is as follows. 

Ingredients: 

1 cucumber
1 teaspoon Grated coconut
1 teaspoon Roasted peanut/ground nut powder
2 teaspoon Coriander leaves
1 teaspoon Lime juice
Salt 
Sugar
1 teaspoon oil
1 teaspoon Mustard seeds
3 - 4 Curry leaves
1/2 teaspoon Hing/Asfoetida

Prepping: ( 10 -15 min)

Step 1: Peel the cucumbers and cut them into small cubes. Keep them aside in a bowl for around 10 - 15 minutes. (Till you finish your other prepping work :) ) 
Step 2: Mean while chop coriander leaves and keep aside. Also be ready with the lime iuice. 
Step 3: I had roasted peanut powder with me. So I just had to add it in the salad.  If you dont have any, roast peanuts/ground nuts till the cover comes off in a pan. You can add them as roasted peanuts to the salad  or crush them in a mortal and pestle or blender/mixie and use them. 

Method of preparation ( 5 - 10 min)

Step 1: 

Add shredded coconut, roasted peanut powder,coriander leaves to the cucumbers. 

Step 2: 

Add lime juice, sprinkle salt and sugar over the cucumbers. Mix well. 

Step 3: Tempering

Heat oil in a pan. When the oil becomes hot, add mustard seeds. Once they start crackling, add curry leaves and hing and switch off.

Now pour the tempering over the cucumber salad and you are done. A quick and tasty dish is ready :)