Steamed Cabbage

This Steamed Cabbage is easy to make in a flash. It’s delicious mildly flavored with spices and has a great crunch that anyone will love. This steamed cabbage recipe is from my Mom and this was the most common way we would eat cabbage at home. So this is made in Indian style but with only a few spices to add some flavor. To make it more spicy or hot, you may up the quantity of spices.

This easy dish makes for a great side and goes with any meal. Serve it on the side to perk up your vegetable intake and the nutrition of your meal. Steaming is one of the healthiest cooking methods to preserve nutrients in vegetables. During steaming, vegetables won’t come in contact with water, so the chances of the nutrients being retained is higher and they won’t leach to the water.

For this recipe, we steam the cabbage and make a tempering with little ghee or oil and basic spices like cumin and garam masala. The steamed cabbage is tossed into the tempering for a delicious flavor.

About Steamed Cabbage

There are different ways to steam cabbage – you can steam the quartered cabbage or shred / chop and steam. I go the second way by chopping them to bite size and steam in a perforated steam basket. I do not own a professional steamer so we use a large pot or a lot of times use my pressure cooker, without the knob/whistle.

You need a stainless steel perforated steamer basket into which you will add the cabbage and place it in the pot or steamer. In the absence of a steam basket, you can also use a wide steel bowl. But you will see some amount of moisture gets accumulated at the bottom of the bowl. But you can add that first to the tempering and evaporate before adding the steamed cabbage.

Growing up, my Mom mixed it for us with hot rice and ghee. But you can also serve it the South Indian way, alongside rice-rasam or rice-sambar. It also goes well with chapati, roti or other flatbreads like thepla. I also put it in rotis or bread to make rolls or sandwiches. This steamed cabbage also goes well in office and school lunch box but don’t put it steaming hot in the box because it will soften instantly due to the steam.

Apart from cabbage I have not used any other veggies, not even onions. But steamed potatoes, peas, carrot or sweet potatoes too go well in this. If you eat eggs, you may scramble them in the tempering before adding the steamed cabbage.

If you love cabbage like the way we do, then you may also check out these dishes
Cabbage Stir Fry
Cabbage Rice
Easy Cabbage Curry
Cabbage Sabzi
South Indian Cabbage Poriyal

Photo Guide

Step by Step Photo Instructions

1. Wash and shred or chop cabbage as desired. Drain the water completely, if you have rinsed it..

2. Add it to a steam basket. Sprinkle some salt and turmeric. Lightly mix it. Spread evenly in the basket. Steam in a pressure cooker (without whistle) or in a steamer until tender. It takes around 5 to 7 minutes.

3. Heat a pan with oil. Add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, add red chilli and hing. My Mom also adds a pinch of urad dal (skinned black lentils) for a nutty flavor.

4. Add curry leaves.

5. Keep the flame to very low. When the leaves turn crisp, saute ginger garlic until the raw smell is gone. It takes about 40 to 50 seconds. Do not burn.

6. Add red chili powder and garam masala. Taste the steamed cabbage to test the salt levels. If you want more add it here.

7. Add steamed cabbage.

8. Stir and saute on a medium heat for 2 mins. Switch off the stove. It can also be sauteed further to make it more tasty, if you want.

Serve steamed cabbage curry with rice or roti. If you want you may squeeze some lemon juice.

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