Sunday, March 25, 2012

Cabbage with a twist - Curried cabbage and rice noodles

copyright Durhamonthecheap - curried cabbage with rice noodles
Aldi had cabbage on sale and usually I fix it like we used to it in Germany - add to one large pot the finally chopped package with some meatballs and add to taste caraway seeds and bay leaf, then cook thoroughly and serve with mashed potatoes.

But I was looking for a lighter meal involving cabbage and without meat. I  remembered that I had seen cabbage prepared in Indian restaurants with curry and just eaten with rice. I searched online for curry and cabbage recipes and found a number of recipes, many of them requiring that you prepare your own curry. I have prepped curry in the past, but it is quite a bit of work, requiring a number of spices that I really only use for curry and so a lot of it goes to waste. I therefore decided to improvise on the recipes that I found online.

I added some oil to a regular pan (not a nonstick variety) and then chopped one whole yellow onion. I cooked the onion long enough to have the pieces obtain a nice sheen. In the meantime, I finely chopped the cabbage and then added the cabbage pieces to the sauteed onion. Lastly, I added a good amount of curry to give the contents of a pan a rich yellow color, cooked and stirred for about 5 minutes to soften the cabbage. I then added a little bit of water to prevent the cabbage from sticking and covered the pan with a lid. The stove was set to low and I cooked the cabbage for another 15 minutes to ensure that the curry and onion flavor could seep into the cabbage. I then removed the lid and let most of the moisture cook off.

I had planned to add rice, but since I only had brown rice at home that I could not see go well with the cabbage, I quickly prepped some rice noodles. I added a good amount of cabbage to a bowl and about half the amount of rice noddles and mixed the two while eating. Overall, the dish turned out great. The cabbage was nice and soft, but not wilted. I really liked the texture. Together with the soft noodles, it was an excellent combo. The curry and onions had nicely flavored the cabbage and the meal was much lighter than the traditional meat and cabbage dishes that I grew up with.

I will definitely cook cabbage more often this way because it allows for a nice light lunch that is healthy and vegetarian.

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