Cabbage Salad/ Sambharo

I love to try different types of salad and salad dressing for an impressive dinner meal. In our house, we love to eat different types of salads made by combining vinegar or yogurt or variety of other salad dressing ideas with carrots, tomatoes, lettuce, cucumber, grapes, green chilies, baby corns, sprouts and even pasta. Among all cabbage is the delicious and crunchy form of salad I can totally rely on. It goes really well with any type of vegetable curry or subzi.

This salad belongs to my roots Gujarat, we call it as sambharo! Sambharo or cabbage salad is basically half cooked salad with fewer spices and green chilies. Mama makes it every time for dinner whenever she prepares dal, rice or khaman dhokla and sometimes fafda. Khaman dhokla is a fluffy, spongy and  light Gujarati snack dished out after steaming the batter of chickpea flour, semolina, ginger-garlic paste and other seasonings. This salad also blends quickly with any vegetarian meal as it is fresh, half cooked, spicy and slightly sour in bites. It is a stir fry recipe where you can add cabbage, carrots, multi colored bell peppers, raw papaya but mama makes it simple. She puts cabbage, carrots and fresh cilantro and I love the addition of cilantro as I feel cilantro tastes heaven with crunchy salads.

Try this amazing side dish at home and thank me later. I am going to make this again and again with all my vegetarian meals. The amazing flavor of curry leaves and cilantro with a touch of lemon juice takes this recipe to another level.

Cabbage Salad/ Sambharo

Preparation Time: 15 minutes

Cooking Time: 5 minutes

Serves: 2-3 persons

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon cooking oil

1 cup cabbage, sliced into thin strips

1 medium size peeled julienne carrot

1 small raw mango, sliced into thin strips

5-8 green chilies, with the help of a sharp knife slit the green chilies vertically without splitting it into two.

½ teaspoon mustard seeds or rai

½ teaspoon turmeric powder or haldi

1 teaspoon lemon juice, substitute for raw mango

1 stem of curry leaves

1 tablespoon roughly chopped cilantro or coriander leaves

A pinch of asafetida

Salt to taste

Method:

• Wash cabbage, raw mango and peeled carrot and chop them into julienne or just run the cabbage and carrot across the grater.
• In a skillet, heat cooking oil and add half teaspoon of mustard seeds and let them crackle for a few seconds. Directly add curry leaves, turmeric, a pinch of asafetida or hing, slit green chilies on a low flame.
• Let it cook for a few minutes until the raw smell goes away, add julienne of cabbage, raw mango and carrots. Toss and unify everything and add salt to taste. Allow the veggies to cook for a few minutes and turn off the flame.
• Garnish with chopped cilantro and squeeze lemon to it. You can skip adding lemon juice as we have added julienne of raw mango. 
• Simple and yummy salad recipe is ready to serve.