Cabbage Thoran

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When thoran is on the table, I'm grabbing the largest spoon and digging in. A cabbage and coconut based vegetable dish that is packed with flavor and super healthy! It's simple, comforting, and one of those side dishes I could honestly eat on its own.

What is Thoran?

Thoran is a dry vegetable dish that originated in Kerala, India. You can really use whatever vegetable you want, like carrots, spinach, or even jackfruit, but my personal favorite is cabbage.

The vegetables are mixed with mustard seeds, cumin, curry leaves, a little onion, and turmeric. But the main flavor driver here is grated coconut. No thoran is complete without it.

Give everything a quick sauté, let it steam in the pan, and you're ready to enjoy. Super simple and very hands off, but packed with incredible flavor when you're trying to spice up some vegetables.

Keys to Success

1. Thinly and evenly slice your vegetables: You want to get your cabbage thinly sliced and even. If they're not, you may end up with a thoran that's unevenly cooked, with some pieces perfect, some undercooked, and others overcooked. Using a mandoline can really help here.
2. Cover & Steam: Using a lid to cover and steam your thoran helps everything cook more evenly and makes the process even easier. I like to create a mountain-like shape in the pan and really pack the thoran together. From there, cover with a lid. This traps the steam inside the pan and within the cabbage, helping everything cook perfectly and evenly.
3. Fresh Ingredients: The use of fresh cabbage and coconut really do go a long way here. If you don't want to grate a fresh coconut yourself, and I'm with you on that, just buy frozen grated coconut. It's usually the closest you can get to fresh and still gives you that same great coconut flavor.

Recipe

Yields: 8-10 servings