Cabbage Carrot Beans Poriyal | Tamilnadu Style Tricolor Stir-Fry Recipe

Did I ever tell you that cabbage is one of my most favorite vegetables?! I can see a lot of you turning your nose up at this 😀 I know cabbage has a strong smell and people usually dislike it for that but again, I like the smell of the cabbage too! Growing up, cabbage stir fry was something Amma used to make atleast once a week, with few variations every now and then. To date, her recipe of the simple cabbage stir fry is my favorite. I remember this one night while Amma was setting up our dinner table, our neighbor came home. Cabbage stir fry was on the menu that night and our neighbor aunty was so impressed by it that she had a cup full of it just like that! That’s how good my Amma’s cabbage stir fry turns out 🙂

And then I remember this funny incident from when we were planning our wedding. Our food caterer gave us the list containing the food items for the D-day and there I saw it – National Poriyal. I was so intrigued by this name. I didn’t know there was a National dish to our country as such. And then he enlightened me about this recipe that makes it every wedding meal in Tamilnadu – Tricolor Poriyal/Stir-fry. It is essentially the cabbage stir-fry with the addition of carrots and French beans. The name really is derived from the flag of India that has orange, white and green just as this stir-fry with carrot, cabbage and French beans 🙂 So, we had it for our wedding meal too and ever since, I make it regularly at home! It is so tasty that I sometimes have it as it is, as a salad. This goes really well with Sambar or Rasam or even with curd rice.

To make Cabbage Carrot Beans Poriyal | Tamilnadu Style Tricolor Stir-Fry Recipe

Servings: 2
Time: 30 mins
Difficulty: Easy
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What I used –

Cabbage Finely Chopped, 1 cup
Carrot Finely Chopped, ½ cup
French Beans Finely Chopped, ½ cup
Fresh Grated Coconut, ¼ cup
Green Chillies, 1-2
Dried Red Chilli, 1
Mustard Seeds, 1 tsp
Cumin Seeds, ½ tsp
Urad Dal, ½ tsp
Asafoetida, a generous pinch
Curry Leaves, a few
Oil, 2 tsp
Salt, as needed

Cabbage Carrot Beans Poriyal (4)

How I made –

In a thick bottomed pan, heat oil. Add mustard seeds, cumin seeds/jeera, dried red chilli (torn in half) and urad dal. As mustard and cumin seeds begin to splutter, add a generous pinch of asafoetida and washed curry leaves. Let them fry for 10 secs. Add chopped green chillies and fry for 20-30 secs.
Add finely chopped cabbage, carrot and French beans. Stir fry for a couple of minutes on medium flame. Add salt required for the vegetables. Keep the pan covered and cook on low flame for 7-10 mins.
In few minutes, the vegetables would leave enough water which is enough to cook them through. Keep stirring every few minutes until all the vegetables are cooked. It can take 10-12 mins. Add grated coconut and stir fry for a minute. Remove from heat.
Serve hot as a side with rice and sambar/rasam/curd.

Note –

If the vegetables are chopped up beforehand, preparing this takes less than 30 mins.
Chop cabbage, carrot and French beans finely and as evenly as possible to ensure even cooking.
Using heavy bottom pan helps the stir fry from charring/burning at the bottom.
Adding salt required for the vegetables at the very beginning helps in sweating the vegetables so no additional water is needed to be added later.
It is essential to cook this covered and on low flame. Otherwise, a few sprinkles of water can be added to the vegetable if it is too dried out.
To grate the coconut, break it open using a heavy knife/rod. Cut coconut into chunks and grind in a blender until powdered evenly. This can be stored in an air tight freezer safe container and used on need basis.
Adjust the number of green chillies as per spice preference. The heat for this recipe comes up from the chillies – rather than being too spicy, it is comforting to have this stir-fry.

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Taking this to Fiesta Friday #128!