Does simplicity beat beauty or they come hand in hand? Find out what’s more important while quickly preparing a bowl of kachumbari tomato and onion salad.
How far are we willing to go in the pursuit of beauty and how long can we enjoy once we get there? If simplicity is beauty then a white room with no furniture is the absolute perfection.
At least in terms of interior design. Of course, times and tastes change. There were times not so long ago when simplicity was looked down upon. So, it may seem that beauty is in change rather than something we can exactly describe.
What is beauty?
In scientific or rather human terms though beauty is in symmetry. At least that’s how we judge beauty in each other. The more symmetrical a human face and body is, the more beautiful we deem it.
Popping on sunglasses that covers half of our face helps a lot covering up many of the imperfections, years could have planted.
As we are really onto symmetry, we can also recognize and cherish asymmetry but only if it’s contained by the frame that we can recognize and adore. It comes to no surprise that we also have a preference for the frames or at least the ratios of frames.
Be it a picture, sculpture, building, dish or basically anything visual we are a sucker of mathematics golden ratio. Not only humans find pleasure in the 1.618 golden proportions, but many plants like to grow their leaves in such an aesthetically pleasing pattern too.
Is there beauty in Culinary?
When it comes to culinary, minimalism has its limits. No one would be pleased by the neatly placed shiny cutlery if all that come between them is an empty white plate. Although, excess has its place -otherwise our three-layer decadent trifle wouldn’t exist- the less is more philosophy triumphs the quantity if the goal is pure enjoyment.
On the other hand though if our goal is not to set golden standard for culinary pureness that can only achieved by a selected few, we have to find a balance between uniqueness and quantity.
Is beauty important at all?
Not like we could feed the world’s population on bite sized meals and expect them to toil all day long building our future. It seems that many fast food restaurants share this philosophy. It’s a pity that they haven’t adjusted their meals calorie count to the calorie requirements of modern life though.
Just imagine if burgers have half the calories of today. We could eat a single burger without feeling guilty about it and only take two to feel slightly ashamed. Well, actually throwing the sugar-soaked buns out, gets rid of about half of the calories and big part of the unnecessary carbs.
Asking a burger without sauces and all we get is a burger meat with some vegetables and maybe cheese. It’s so simple and simplicity is beauty.
What’s left when beauty has gone?
Or so they say but a room without furniture is as much fun as a plate without food or a burger without bun. Nor beauty only exist only for the eyes. Otherwise kachumbari would have never made it to the dinner table.
Kachumbari is a simple tomato and onion salad, sometimes beefed up with pepper, avocado, cilantro, parsley or cucumber. The more adventurous like to experiment by adding a tad of gin or vodka too but it’s not required by any standards.
Kachumbari is not about the look nor really about immersive indulgence but rather it’s a celebration of simplicity and a nod of gratitude towards the enjoyments of life.
Ingredients
- 1 Onion (diced)
- 3 Tomato (diced)
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- ½ Lemon Juice or lime
- Optional:
- 1 Avocado (diced)
- 1 tablespoon Cilantro (diced)
- 1 Pepper (diced)
- 1 tablespoon Parsley (diced)
- 1 Cucumber (diced)
- 1 clove Garlic (diced)
How to make Kachumbari
- Originally Kachumbari is just a tomato and onion salad but we can go wild and add more stuff to it. Avocado goes well with lime and cilantro while pepper parsley and lemon are lovely choices too, others really dig cucumber and garlic.
- Rinse and peel that needs to be rinsed and peeled. Dice the the ingredients up. Try to make similar sized rectangles. Similar size food not just looks but tastes better too.
- Sprinkle salt and lemon or lime juice on top then mix everything together. Keep it in the fridge until it is served.
Enjoy!
FitttZee
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Kachumbari Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 Onion diced
- 3 Tomato diced
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- ½ Lemon Juice or lime
- Optional:
- 1 Avocado diced
- 1 tablespoon Cilantro diced
- 1 Pepper diced
- 1 tablespoon Parsley diced
- 1 Cucumber diced
- 1 clove Garlic diced
Instructions
- Originally Kachumbari is just a tomato and onion salad but we can go wild and add more stuff to it. Avocado goes well with lime and cilantro while pepper parsley and lemon are lovely choices too, others really dig cucumber and garlic.
- Rinse and peel that needs to be rinsed and peeled. Dice the the ingredients up. Try to make similar sized rectangles. Similar size food not just looks but tastes better too.
- Sprinkle salt and lemon or lime juice on top then mix everything together. Keep it in the fridge until it is served.
Notes
Pin now, Enjoy later!
Never thought tomato onion salad has a name 😀
Eventually all babies get one ;D
It tastes like onion tomato salad 😀
Yeah, curiously it does, doesn’t it?