I prefer Savoy cabbage. It has a mild flavor and I recently found out it has more folic acid and beta carotenes than regular cabbage, so an extra dollar I spend on this variety is not a waste.
Mandoline is a useful thing to have, it has a way with cabbage, don’t you agree? You can cut cabbage into thin strips in a jiff with mandoline. When I used this contraption for cabbage, I was relieved to know that I didn’t waste 19 bucks, you see, it was a middle of the afternoon, impulsive, first time purchase from HSN. Ya, sometimes I do buy things from TV shopping networks.
Back to cabbage curry…
Recipe:
I medium sized Savoy Cabbage: Cut cabbage into thin long strips. Remember cabbage reduces in volume by 60 to 70% when cooked.
1 onion, 5 green chillies finely chopped.
1/4 cup of soaked chana dal
2 tsp of coconut powder
1/2 tsp of each, salt and turmeric
popu or tadka ingredients: 1 tsp each of cumin, mustard seeds, minced garlic and curry leaves
Preparation:
First do the popu (fry mustard seeds, cumin, garlic and curry leaves in oil), then add onions, chillies and chana dal, sauté them.
Add cabbage, salt, coconut powder and turmeric, mix them together. Cover and cook the cabbage in its own moisture. It will retain more nutrients in this way, (rather than cooking it in water, draining and then adding).
Five minutes maximum, curry is done. Have it with chapati or with rice and dal.
Cabbage curry, chapatis and cup of yogurt ~ our lunch today.
I had this wonderful dish at Taste of India in Nashville, TN and it has the most delightful flavor, crunchiness. Yummy is my good word for a healthy dish.
Comment by pj — September 8, 2006 @ 10:08 pm
thanks for the recipe
Comment by madhuri — January 25, 2007 @ 11:18 am
Great recipe. I cooked cabbage in microwave for 4 minutes( I used half medium cabbage) prior to use to reduce cooking time.
Comment by Aswartha — April 8, 2007 @ 12:24 pm
thanks for the recipe…
Comment by devi — May 22, 2007 @ 9:13 am
thanks!food blogs like yours are extreme helpful for bachelors like us. i tried this one and an instant hit.
Comment by kishore — May 30, 2007 @ 7:34 pm
nice recipe..i wanted to know how long u soak the chana dal tho..overnite???
Comment by sweta — September 7, 2007 @ 9:46 am
hi
thanks – yummy recipe, reminds me of my Iyengar aunt’s cooking! Only thing -my cabbage is taking quite long. Feels sort of crunchy – is it supposed to be like that or do i need to cook it more?
Comment by aditi — September 17, 2007 @ 6:58 am
nice and thanks for the recipi which makes me work easier
Comment by smitha — December 27, 2007 @ 3:22 pm
Hello Indira
i live in NZ. Your website is amazing. I tried this recipe. Wow, it came out very good.
Thanks a lot.
Cheers
Nisha
Comment by Nisha — January 16, 2008 @ 1:16 pm
I see that Sweta had much the same idea as me. I see it alot in Indian recipes where a small amount of dhal is fried with the spices. Why isn’t it crunchy? What happens to it?? Please solve this mystery. I haven’t tried it because it seems to me that I must be doing something wrong.
Hello Bill,
You know the cooked beans in salad? how they add little bit of texture and substance to the green leafy salads? Like adzuki beans and black beans etc. Small amount of dhal in several Indian recipes and chana dal in this particular recipe also serves the same purpose and also increases the nutritional value (dhal=protein) of the preparation.
Hope this helps.
-Indira
Comment by Bill — March 10, 2008 @ 12:05 pm
hi
thnx for u r receipe.
Comment by keerthi — March 27, 2008 @ 10:22 am
amazing recipe. i used to make cabbage a different way, but this is how my mom makes it, and exactly what i was looking for! and now i know not to add water! (i am a college student, so slowly getting into the cooking world)
Hello SS,
Good to know that you had success with this recipe.
Thanks for taking time to let me know. Happy cooking experiments.:)
-Indira
Comment by SS — April 20, 2008 @ 8:32 am
what gives the cabbage its yellow color? suppose the end result is not as yellow as shown… is that bad?
It’s turmeric, Roshni.
-Indira
Comment by Roshni — April 20, 2008 @ 12:47 pm
hi,
I tried it and was very tasty and easy to make.
To soak chana daal just keep in microoven for 10min before cooking.
-valli
Comment by valli — November 24, 2008 @ 8:47 pm
i made noe.. it came awesome….
Comment by RadhikaReddy — March 23, 2009 @ 1:56 pm
Excellent recipe….worked perfectly fine. Thanks !!
Comment by Venkat — January 25, 2010 @ 10:10 pm
Hi Indira garu,
thank you for the recipe. the other day I bought cabbage for the first time in my 7 years of married life as I hated it as a child and later on as well and my hubby had no special interest either. I looked for a recipe, found yours. today I couldn’t use onion or garlic but this still came out wonderful. easy to prepare and I can’t believe I actually liked cabbage.already looking forward to make again.
Comment by kumudini — September 9, 2010 @ 7:54 pm
Indira,
Can you please tell me what brand/type of mandoline you have? I found 100’s of them on an amazon search and don’t want to take chances, but want to get
something thats tried and tested. Can you please email me back?
Thanks,
savitha
Comment by savitha — November 15, 2010 @ 10:55 am
What can i use as sabstitute for coconut powder? Coconut milk would be fine? Is coconut powder the same as dessicated coconut flakes that i would grind in a coffee grinder?
Comment by Eva — December 28, 2010 @ 7:56 am
I have trouble in cutting cabbage for the curry or fry, either i cut them very finely or very thick. Can you tell me how to cut the cabbage into thin strips?
Mandoline helps a lot with cabbage cutting, Bindu. I use it to cut cabbage, karela, and plantain for our curries.
-Indira
Comment by Bindu — February 8, 2011 @ 4:13 am
We are Americans who are semi-vegetarian and grow our own vegetables. We are also hooked on Indian vegetarian food and eat it at least twice a week! It seems there are so many things to do with nearly any vegetable! Did you know that Polish people make their own version of this? I grew up eating cabbage with yellow peas/lentils as well but with bay leaves instead of curry leaves…go figure! Thank you for the wonderful recipes!!!
Comment by Heather Demantes — July 25, 2011 @ 4:02 pm
Thanks for the wonderful recipe, my whole family loved it. Addition of soaked channa dal and grated coconut had enhanced the flavour.My mom makes the same curry with split yellow moong dal, but still I loved this version.
Comment by Srilakshmi — February 8, 2012 @ 9:02 am