Cabbage Thoran is a side dish made with cooked cabbage with a garnish of coconut, green chillies, and cumin.
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Cabbage Thoran | Cabbage Curry
Cabbage Thoran is a South Indian, and specifically Kerala style, of preparing vegetables. All thorans start off with vegetables being steam cooked, followed by a garnish of ground up grated coconut-green chilli-jeera.
We make this dish almost every week with a different vegetable: carrots, beans, snake gourd, beetroot or even mix vegetables.
In this recipe, I have not used sliced onions because I grew up eating very little onions in dry curries like this – so it’s just practice. But you can add sliced onions; it will give a nice texture and sweetish taste.
Ingredients for Cabbage Curry
The main and first ingredient is cabbage. Depending on the size of your household, pick the size of the cabbage. I recently learnt that the cabbage is the flower part of the plant, so you are basically eating a flower. How cool is that?
Coconut Oil – I prefer to use coconut oil, but you use any cooking oil of your choice.
Other ingredients – mustard seeds, split urad dal and curry leaves.
Thoran mix – grated coconut, green chillies and jeera seeds
You can also use sliced onions for this dish.
How to make Cabbage Thoran?
Slicing the cabbage is the part that takes the longest time in making the dish. You can start off by removing any damages outer leaf and then rinsing off the top layer with water. Wipe the cabbage.
Slice the cabbage in half and you will notice the thick core at the center. Cut off the core and then stack the individual leaves (or petals). Cut them into thin strips. Do the same for the rest of the leaves. You can eat the core, but if you want uniformity in texture, you can just use the leaves and keep the core to make vegetable stock.
Cooking the cabbage thoran
Place a kadai on medium flame. Add some coconut oil or any oil of your choice. Once the oil is warm, add the mustard seeds and split urad dal. Let the mustard seeds sputter.
Next, add the curry leaves, and saute it for a couple of seconds. If you are using onions, add the at this stage and allow them to soften.
Then add the sliced cabbage. Sprinkle the turmeric powder, asafoetida powder, and salt. Mix all the ingredients well. Once you see that the turmeric has coated the cabbage well, sprinkle some water on top of the cabbage and cover the kadai with a lid. Turn the flame to the lowest setting.
Cabbage cooks very fast so do not move away from the stove. Check a few times, mix the cabbage and check for doneness. If you think the cabbage has cooked, increase the heat and allow for any of the excess moisture to evaporate. Turn off the heat.
IN a small mixer jar, add the grated coconut, green chillies and jeera. Grind them in pulse mode 2-3 times without water. You want to see a coarse texture and not a mushy texture like a chutney.
Take this garnish and add it to the cooked cabbage. Mix well and your curry is ready.
Serve Cabbage Thoran as a side dish with Rasam rice and Beans Paruppusli. You can serve this cabbage delicacy on festive occasions or during an Onam Sadhya.
Storage and Shelf Life
Cabbage curry is best eaten within 2-3 hours of it being made if left on the counter. The usage of coconut in it will make it go bad quickly in a tropical climate.
You can keep the vegetable in the fridge for up to 2 days, after which I suggest you toss it. Anything with fresh coconut in it is best not consumed after 2 days in the fridge.
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Recipe
Cabbage Thoran
Ingredients
- 250 g Cabbage small sized
- 1 tsp Coconut Oil
- ½ tsp Mustard Seeds
- 1 tsp Split Urad Dal
- 2 sprigs Curry Leaves
- ½ tsp Turmeric Powder
- ½ tsp Asafoetida Powder
- ½ tsp Salt (adjust as required)
- 2 tbsp Fresh Coconut grated
- 1-2 Green Chillies
- ½ tsp Jeera
Instructions
- The first step is to wash and slice the cabbage into thin strips. The best way to get equal size strips of cabbage is to cut the cabbage down the center. Then cut off the central thick vein. Stack the leaves on top of each other and slice thinly. It will take some time to get it as thin, but keep at it.
- Place a kadai on medium heat and add some coconut oil. Once the oil is warm, add the mustard seeds and split urad dal.
- As the mustard seeds stop sputtering, add the curry leaves and stir for a minute.
- Next, add the sliced cabbage. Sprinkle a teaspoon of turmeric powder, asafoetida powder and ½ tsp of salt. Stir until the cabbage is coated with turmeric.
- Sprinkle some water on top of the cabbage, bring the flame to a low and close the lid of the kadai. The cabbage will steam cook and if you notice that the water levels are reducing, sprinkle some more water. Don't move away from the stove because cabbage should take less than 5 minutes to fully cook.
- While the cabbage is cooking, you can get the final garnish ready. To a small mixer jar, add grated coconut, green chillies and jeera. Pulse grind 2-3 times and you have the final garnish ready.
- Once the cabbage has cooked and there is no moisture left in the kadai, turn off the heat.Add the coconut-green chilli garnish and mix them all well.
- Your Cabbage Thoran is ready!
