Mildly Spiced Cabbage-Carrot Stir Fry

Mildly Spiced Cabbage-Carrot Stir Fry


Here is one vegetable I wonder who will even like. Cabbage! It is so disliked in my household that most of the times I disguise it. Reason I take that effort is because it is a very nutritive vegetable. Belonging to the cruciferous family, it is said to have ability to help prevent cancer. Did you know that research have found that 1/3rd of the cancers can be prevented by eating the right kind of food? Isn’t that good news? I try to include a wide variety of fruit and veg in our diet. Also I find it more palatable and nutritionally advantageous to combine vegetables and cook them; you may have seen other similar posts on the blog. I learned this recipe from my mother-in-law. She had made it for dinner along with rasam and rice. I quite liked it and have been trying to replicate. Quite a simple recipe.

1 cup finely chopped cabbage (adjust quantity according to your preference)
1 cup grated carrot
1 teaspoon grated ginger
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
1-2 green chillies slit/chopped
Asafoetida
1 teaspoon cooking oil

Salt to taste

In a heavy bottom dish or skillet, heat the oil and add mustard seeds. Once they crackle, add chillies, ginger, turmeric powder and asafoetida.

Add the vegetables and cook until done

As both carrot and cabbage are salad vegetables so can be eaten raw, you do not have to cook them for long. Season with salt in the start of cooking so they cook faster.

I like it with rasam and rice but some may like it with chapatti also.

Pulav (Pilaf/Pulao)

Pulav/Pilaf/Pulao

For a long time now, I have been trying to figure out the difference between pulav and fried rice. I have googled quite a lot but not found a convincing answer. Most answers are in the lines that fried rice is a Chinese way of combining pre-cooked rice with other ingredients on a wok. If you know a better answer, I will be glad to hear from you.


I have been meaning to post pulav recipe for a long time now as my sis-in-law wanted this recipe. Somehow I never got to make it although it used to be a regular dish on our weekly menu. I think it is because my husband has shown more interest in sambar and curd rice now that I could not bother making this dish just for myself. Usually when I sense that we have not had enough vegetables in the last couple of days or so and say if I have little quantity of several vegetables left over, I usually make vegetable pulav. I must say that it is not like the lovely pulav that my mom used to make early in the morning so I could take it to college for lunch but it is close. She was so quick, she even used to do it when I used to work in Chennai and would leave home at 6 in the morning. I have a LOT to learn from her!

The key to pulav is to have the right consistency of rice and by that I mean, the grains should be cooked yet well separated so it is not like a mushy mass and ends up like upma than pulav. As pulav is usually not made very spicy like briyani, I think it is important to infuse nice aromas and flavours into the rice. Here is my simple pulav recipe.

1 cup rice, rinsed
1 cup vegetables of your choice (I usually use peas, capsicum, carrot, baby corn etc.)
1 big onion thinly sliced
2 green chillies slit or chopped
1 teaspoon cumin seeds and another teaspoon black cumin seeds (Kashmiri jeera)
¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
1 cinnamon stick
1 star anise
1 bay leaf
2-3 cloves
2 cardamom pods
Ghee or cooking oil
Salt to taste
Ginger, an inch long piece grated

In a skillet, add about 2 teaspoons ghee or cooking oil and once hot, add all the whole spices except the cumin seeds. Once the spices start frying and give a nice aroma, add the rinsed and drained rice and fry so the grains are coated with oil/ghee. Fry until the rice turns white.

Pressure cook the rice with equal amount of water. Usually people use 1:2 ratio of rice and water but I find that the rice turns mushy. You may have a different experience with the rice you are using, so please use your discretion. If you do not pressure cook, you could always cook it in a pan. Whichever way you chose, cook the rice with the whole spices so all the flavours and aroma  infuse.

While the rice is cooking, in the skillet add about a teaspoon of oil and once hot, add the cumin seeds. Allow them to start turning darker. Then add onions, turmeric powder, chillies and ginger and fry until onions start turning transparent.

Add vegetables and cook until done. If you like your peppers crunchy add them towards the end. Add required salt (including what you need for the rice)

Once the rice is cooked, try to cool it on a plate. If you mix when the rice is hot, it may easily break the grains. Once cool enough, mix with vegetables and garnish with coriander.

Serve with a spicy curry or keep it cool with a raita!

Keerai Mor Sambar (Yogurty Spinach Sauce)

Arachu vitta Keerai Mor Sambar (Yogurty Spinach Sauce with Freshly  Ground Spices)


Have I mentioned before that I get uncomfortable if I do not have a food experiment planned when I am in the kitchen? It was one such morning and I was so uneasy. I felt like I am wasting something – don’t know what though. Had a quick look at the contents of my refrigerator and was quite keen on finishing off any remaining vegetables so we could get a fresh stock during the weekend shopping. A bag of spinach was lying and was quite attractive with its green leaf. Easiest recipe with it is probably to just sauté it but what is special about that. Also, my husband had mentioned earlier that he would love to eat real south Indian meal for lunch on Sunday. He is not a fan of rasam but loves sambar especially with freshly ground spices. I was quite bored of making sambar and hence wanted to come up with a hybrid. That is how this recipe was created. You may recall reading a post on Mor Sambar, which you may have noticed is different from Mor Kuzhambu. You will notice that this recipe is Mor sambar as well but will taste very different from the earlier one. Here is how I did it, why don’t you try and see the difference yourself?

2 handful of spinach chopped (more if you like)

1 cup stirred yogurt

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

¼ teaspoon turmeric powder

Asafoetida

½ cup well cooked Tuvar dal (toor dal/pigeon peas)

2 teaspoons channa dal

4 teaspoons coriander seeds (dhania)

2-3 dry red chillies

Salt to taste

In a deep dish, put the spinach with just a dash of water and cook. Also add some asafoetida and turmeric powder

Once the spinach is almost done, add the yogurt and dilute with desired amount of water (this depends on how thick you prefer to have your sambar. You could add a bit now and dilute further towards the end). Also add the dal.

In the mean time, dry roast channa dal until golden brown. Roast coriander seeds until you get a nice aroma and seeds start to slightly pop. Roast the chillies until it looks crisp. Cool and grind all together to reasonably fine powder.

Once yogurt spinach mixture starts boiling, add about 2 table spoons of the ground powder, allow it to boil.

Add salt after you take it off the flame. To temper, add mustard seeds to some heated oil. I also added a broken red chilly. Add to the sambar.

You may have some spice powder left over, you can add this to usual sambar or vegetables.

I am sorry the photos are not great this time, hopefully will get better next time I make it.