cabbage upkari

finally a recipe which was a staple at home. a recipe made with cabbage, beans, caulifower and even snake gourd, bottle gourd and pumpkin. the chana dal and the coconut were always there and this was my favorite combination with any veggie. this used to be my tiffin box lunch in school with chapatis.

so the recipe that i am writing today is about upkari…. cabbage upkari. its one of my favorite ways to have cabbage besides the cabbage pakora.

i enjoyed making this one cabbage upkari recipe so much… don’t know why…. most of the time i like to cook. but this one was so good with all the cutting, chopping and clicking…

so, lets begin cabbage upkari recipe.
firstly pick, rinse the chana dal. then soak these in water for 1 hour.

 remove the first layer of the cabbage. rinse the cabbage in water. slice the cabbage from the center.

now if you don’t have a food processor, you have to use a knife to chop or slice the cabbage. slice the two halves of the cabbage finely.

hmmmm… finished slicing all the cabbage.

now comes the cooking part. heat oil in a pan and fry the cumin seeds.

after they sizzle, add the onions and saute the onions till they become transparent.

then add the crushed garlic and saute it till the raw smell of garlic disappears.

now add the cabbage and chana dal.

add the green chilies also.

mix the cabbage with the chana dal. and then add the salt and spice powders.

stir the cabbage with the spice powders.

cover the pan and let the cabbage cook in its own juice. you could add 1/2 cup of water to the cabbage to avoid the cabbage from being burnt. see the notes section below. stir in between, by removing the lid of the pan. this is how the cabbage looks after 14 minutes.

the cabbage will be half cooked now and its time to add the grated coconut. mix the whole veggie well with the coconut.

this is how the cabbage appears after 3 minutes. check to see if the chana dal is cooked.

cook for some more 10-15 minutes or till the chana dal is cooked. garnish with coriander leaves. serve cabbage upkari hot with chapatis or phulkas.

few imp points for cabbage upkari recipe:

• usually we don’t add water as there is one steaming method which we follow in our house while cooking veggies. we cover the pan with a broad thali/plate instead of a lid. and add some water on top of the thali. the water in the thali does not allow the veggies to get burnt or stick to the pan. this also accelerates the cooking process. when the water evaporates & dries whilst cooking, then add some more water on the thali.
• but if you are not going to do this method, then add around 1/2 cup or 3/4th cup of water to the cabbage. this is to ensure the cabbage does not get burnt. keep on stirrring the cabbage after intervals to avoid it from sticking to the pan. keep on a low flame.
• we add curry leaves to the upkari, but i did not have curry leaves on this day.
• also i decided to skip mustard seeds, but at home we usually add mustard seeds to the cabbage upkari.

cabbage upkari recipe details below: