Indian-style cabbage you can make in 5 minutes
This cabbage side dish is great to have in your arsenal, because it comes together in 5 minutes flat, and makes a big and flavorful addition to an Indian meal. I break out some variation of it when I’m making a curry, rice and raita and feel the need for one more dish to round out the meal.
Everything in the cabbage family (brassica) goes great with mustard, so mustard seeds are the primary flavoring. If you happen to have mustard oil, you can use that instead of the vegetable oil and reduce the seeds by half. Be sure and have all of chopping done and your spices measured in advance, because once the mustard seeds hit the oil, you have to move quickly.
Five-Minute Indian-style Cabbage
Serves 4 as a side dish
Vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free
- 1/2 head green cabbage, cored and sliced into 1/4″ wide ribbons
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil or ghee (clarified butter), or mustard oil, or more to taste
- 1 tablespoon black mustard seeds
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin powder
- 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1 teaspoon salt
- optional: garlic, ginger, unsweetened shredded coconut, fresh chilis or dried chili flakes, garam masala
- optional garnish: cilantro, lemon juice
- Heat a large skillet or wok over a medium-high flame. Add the oil, wait 10 seconds, and immediately add the mustard seeds.
- As soon as they start to pop, add the rest of the spices and any optional ingredients and stir-fry for 10 more seconds. Move quickly here so you infuse the flavor in the oil but don’t burn them.
- Add the cabbage and salt, and stir-fry until crisp-tender or tender, your preference. Taste and adjust seasoning.
- Garnish with cilantro and/or lemon juice.
Facebook
Twitter
Google Bookmarks
Yahoo! Buzz
Digg
RSS
StumbleUpon
mmm, quick and easy sounds great. Indian spices sound even better!
I can’t wait to try this! I’ve been on a cabbage kick (it’s cheap, nutritious, and delicious), so this will be a great addition to the rotation. Thanks for the idea!
I will trying this one out for sure!
Right up my street.
Lesley
yum! raisins and cashew nuts are a great addition
I just made this after doing a search for indian cabbage recipe…this was amazingly good! Thanks
Excellent recipe!! A few changes I made: after sauteing, I added some diced red onion, a couple splashes or mirin, and a dollop of Vegenaise. I did add 1 t. of garam masala with the other spices. I’m going to serve it with a curried brown rice & lentil pilaf and coconut tofu. I can’t wait for dinner!
So, so delicious! I just copied this into my paper notebook of recipes I would be very sad to lose if the Internet went away. Thanks for sharing it!
Thanks Tracy! We'll try to keep the internet around for a little longer, just in case.
I came across this recipe looking for a way to use mustard seeds in an indian-inspired cabbage dish. I served it with potato-cauliflower curry and it was fantastic! I added a fresh chile, garlic, upped the cayenne by almost double and then added lemon and cilantro, both of which I found were important to the dish for my taste.
Thanks for the recipe, I’ll surely make it again and browse the rest of the recipes on your site.
I found this recipe unsatisfactory, but for silly reasons, I think: the cabbage I got was too large (perhaps 8″ diameter), and the largest burner on my stove is too small, maybe. Anyhow, stir-frying the cabbage was really not working, so at some point I gave up and added a few oz of water and covered the wok and stemed things so as to get the cabbage a BIT cooked. Then, when the water boiled off, I stirred a bit more to make sure everything was oil-coated, and served it. It was oddly taste-less; the mustard-oil flavor was weak, and the spice-flavors all but disappeared. I suspect that with a 5″ diameter cabbage (which is only about 1/4 the volume of an 8″ one), the flavors would be stronger, and the cooking might go better. I’ll certainly give it another try, because the ingredient combination seems like a winner.
One last suggestion: “sliced thin” is a little vague. That could be 1/16″ or 1/4″, whcih is a pretty wide range of variation. Maybe you should add a suggested thin-ness (or say that it doesn’t matter).
I tried it again, and liked it lots more. I think I must have been tired or just screwed up the last time. This time around, I went with half of the half-cabbage that was left (i.e., one quarter of an 8″ cabbage), and the flavors were much clearer, and the cabbage-cooking went better. I still had to add a bit of canola oil (I used pure mustard oil, and there just wasn’t quite enough there during the stir-frying. I cut down the cayenne to just a sprinkle (I’ve got a kid who doesn’t like hot food) and the salt by half because I tend to be salt-averse, but next time I’d go ahead and use 3/4tsp.
Anyhow, this time around it got generally good reviews. I’ll probably try it once more, with that last 1/4-cabbage.
Looks like a great recipe, just an added flavour you could try is curry leaves. You can get fresh curry leaves at an Indian/South Asian grocery store. Add a few to the oil with the mustard seeds.
A pinch of asafoetida is usually added to all cabbage dishes in India. I also add a cup of peas to the cabbage, when I make this dish.
Hi there Michael, I came across your site from a Google search and just made this for lunch. What a lovely, lovely dish it is. I added a dried red chilli to the oil with the mustard seeds, and also some green shallots (as I had a few leftover that needed using up). And then we had this with some flatbreads. Brilliant. Thank you so much for posting
I just served this with tandoori chicken thighs and brown rice pilaf. Fabulous and so easy!