Cabbage Poriyal

Cabbage poriyal recipe with step by step photos – Lightly spiced, sauteed and steamed cabbage recipe from South Indian cuisine. It makes for an excellent vegan side dish with sambar, rasam or any South Indian meal. Try this easy and inexpensive cabbage side dish tonight!

I often make poriyals and a veggie roast, when I make sambar or rasam. I choose to make them as an accompanying side dish, since they taste good with sambar-rice combo and they are also easy to prepare.

This cabbage poriyal recipe uses pearl onions, but you can even skip them. Or you can use onions instead of pearl onions.

In this recipe i have used green cabbage. But feel free to swap it with red cabbage.

By now I have shared quite a number of poriyal recipes like Beetroot poriyal, Beans poriyal and Vendakkai poriyal.

Most poriyal recipes are easy and quick to prepare. Even a beginner can make them easily.

You can serve it as a side dish with sambar-rice or rasam-rice combo. Or you can have it with roti, plain paratha or lachha paratha or with bread slices. It can also be packed in the lunch box.

Step-by-Step Guide

How to make Cabbage Poriyal

1. Peel and remove the top skin from the cabbage. Rinse. Quarter the cabbage and blanch in hot water for 5 to 10 minutes. Then shred cabbage or chop it.

I used 350 grams of cabbage, which yielded 4 cups of tightly packed shredded cabbage.

Preparing tempering

2. Heat 2 tablespoons of sesame oil or any oil (sunflower, peanut or safflower oil) in a shallow pan. Lower the heat and add ½ teaspoon mustard seeds and crackle them.

3. Once the mustard seeds begin to crackle and pop, add 1 teaspoon urad dal (husked and split black gram).

4. Saute the urad dal till it starts changing color.

5. The urad dal should become a maroonish color. Saute on a low heat, so that the urad dal does not get burnt. 

TIP: Chana dal (Bengal Gram) can be added instead of urad dal. If adding chana dal, then soak them for 30 minutes in hot water.

After 30 minutes drain all the water and add the chana dal. Then saute the chana dal while tempering, instead of urad dal.

6. Then add ¼ cup sliced pearl onions (sambar onions) or shallots. You can also use ¼ cup of finely chopped onions.

Also add 10 to 12 curry leaves and 1 to 2 green chilies, chopped. You can also use 1 to 2 dry red chilies instead of green chilies.

7. Saute for a minute.

8. Then add ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder and a pinch of asafoetida (hing).

9. Stir well.

Making cabbage poriyal

10. Then add the shredded cabbage. Also, season with salt as required. Stir and mix again very well.

11. Add ¼ cup of water. Stir again.

12. Then cover the pan with a tight lid. On a low heat simmer the cabbage till its cooked.

13. Check after every 5 to 6 minutes and give a stir so that the cabbage does not get burnt.

14. If the water has dried up and the cabbage is not cooked, sprinkle some more water (about 3 to 4 tablespoons). Cover and continue to cook.

15. In the below pic, the cabbage has cooked and become tender. There should be no water in the poriyal before you proceed to the next step.

16. Add 3 to 4 tablespoons of grated fresh coconut.

17. Stir very well.

18. Lastly add 2 tablespoons of chopped coriander leaves to cabbage poriyal. This step is optional and you can skip the coriander leaves.

19. Stir and Serve cabbage poriyal hot or warm as a side dish with sambar-rice or rasam rice. You can also have it with Indian flatbreads like roti, plain paratha or with bread. It can also be packed in a tiffin box.

More Cabbage recipes

Please be sure to rate the recipe in the recipe card or leave a comment below if you have made it. For more veetarian inspirations, Sign Up for my emails or follow me on Instagram, Youtube, Facebook, Pinterest or Twitter.

This Cabbage Poriyal post from the blog archives first published in November 2015 has been updated and republished on January 2023.

Source: Dassana’s Veg Recipes