Kerala Style Cabbage Thoran

Serves: 4

Time to cook: 20-30 minutes

Ingredients:

1. Cabbage ( Lettuce works too!) (sliced long and thin)   : 4-5 leaves
2. Carrots (sliced long)                                                     : 2 medium sized carrots
3. Shredded Coconut White (very important!)                  : 1 cup
4. Mustard seeds (very important!)                                  : 1/5th of a cup
5. Vegetable oil                                                                : 1 tablespoon
6. Onion (diced into small pieces)                                    : 1 cup
7. Ginger-garlic paste                                                      : 1 tablespoon
8. Turmeric powder                                                          : ½ teaspoon
9. Chilly powder                                                               : ¼ teaspoon
10. Cumin seeds (crushed)                                                : 1 teaspoon
11. Salt                                                                              : 1 teaspoon (or to taste)
12. Pepper                                                                         :  0-1 teaspoon (depending on how spicy you want it)

Directions:

1. Add the cut carrots and cabbage leaves together into a pan with half a cup of water. Turn the heat to low once the water starts to boil (a useful tip for cooking anything). Use a wooden spoon (if you want to keep your pretty non-stick cookware scratch-free) to make sure the vegetables don't stick to the pan. When the water has disappeared, transfer the carrots and cabbage leaves into a container.

2. Put the mustard seeds and vegetable oil and heat together in a pan. (IMPORTANT: cover the pan with a lid as mustard seeds could break, pop out and could cause minor burns when the oil is getting hot.) Wait for 3-4 minutes until the mustard seeds stop making the sputtering sound.

3. Add the onion and cook until it is yellow in color.

4. Add the turmeric, cumin seeds, salt, pepper, ginger-garlic paste, chilly powder and coconut to the pan and continue to heat.

5. Once they are mixed well (use the wooden spoon to mix), add the pre-boiled cabbage-carrot mix and cook for 5 minutes with constant mixing.

6. Breathe in the aroma of South-Indian style cabbage thoran, ready to be served with rice and yoghurt and some pickle. :)

7. Thank me later ;)

My mother's tips:

1. You could replace the cabbage with mexican beans, lentils, baby beans etc. These are all rich sources of proteins and carbo-hyrdates. But beware that too much of the beans is known to cause flatulence.

2. Ginger Garlic paste can be prepared and stored in the fridge for months without getting spoilt. Take equal parts (by weight) of garlic cloves and skinned and diced ginger and grind them in a little power-grinder with a little water to make ginger-garlic paste.