Thursday for Dinner

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Cabbage Sambharo is a Gujarati side dish similar in look and feel to coleslaw or salad. There are two aspects to this dish which make it quite unique:

1. In order to stop the salad from becoming soggy, all excess water is removed by adding salt to the mixture and letting it sit for a while.
2. The “dressing” is far from the traditional combination of vinegar/lemon juice/olive oil. Instead, it is a combination of ingredients such as mustard seeds, sesame seeds and turmeric lightly toasted in oil on the stove top.

Ingredients

Salad:

• ¼ of a small cabbage, shredded
• ¼ red pepper, julienned
• ¼ yellow pepper, julienned
• ¼ orange pepper, julienned
• ¼ green pepper, julienned
• 1 small carrot, shredded
• 1 tbsp salt

Dressing

• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 1 tsp white sesame seeds
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1 green chili finely chopped (or to taste)
• 1 tsp oil

Garnish

• Handful of pomegranate
• Handful of cilantro (Italian parsley)
• Pinch of sugar
• 1 tbsp lemon juice

Directions

1. Combined shredded cabbage, julienned peppers and shredded carrot in a bowl.
2. Add the salt and mix it into the salad thoroughly – Let this sit for about 15 minutes.
3. Squeeze excess water from the salad. You can do this with your hands. Just take a handful and squeeze, until no more water comes out. Repeat this until you have gotten through all the salad. Place the dehydrated salad in another bowl.
4. Warm oil in a pot. Add the mustard seeds and allow them to sizzle until you hear them popping.
5. Add the sesame seeds and allow them to turn golden brown.
6. Add the turmeric and green chili.
7. Pour the entire contents of the pot into the bowl of salad which you set aside in step 3.
8. Add the lemon juice and sugar.
9. Mix so that the dressing, lemon juice and sugar is evenly distributed.
10. Garnish with pomegranate and cilantro.