This one is for Mummy- 10 years today, what would she have looked like, what would she want to eat. I am thinking something simple but secretly she would be relishing every single moment her grandkids would have demanded she cook for them.

If you were ever a guest at Mum’s table, you know that every meal was a twelve to fifteen-course setting. A couple of vegetable shaaks, dahl, kadhi or lentils, sometimes a non-veg main dish, a fried snack, a different raita every day of the week, a side of salad, rice, an aged pickle and a fresh pickle, papad rolls, papdi, puri, rotli, and always a tall jug of salty chaas and some sort of dessert, except for Thursday when we fasted then it was all farari foods, her menus were centered around what Dad wanted at a whim.

And no Sunday morning would be complete without hand-pressed lamba ganthiya with their curled edges lined neatly on a large sinia, and hot jalebis swirling about in the hot oil, as she would pipe out perfect coils out of the bulging beige Imarti cloth bag.

Mum would fish them out with a wooden tong, and then pass a knitting needle between the swirls and hang the jalebis over a pot to collect excess oil before immersing them into the sticky sweet syrup bath, at the same time papai no sambharo (stir-fried raw papaya salad) and kobich no sambharo topped with fried green chilies would be coming together on another stove.  

And she was always the last one at the table, no matter the occasion, often never touching any of the food she spent hours preparing, but relishing in the simple bites of rotli, wrapping a shaak and dipping it in dhal. I learned to linger around the table as she would eat quietly after the whirlwind of people left the table. Her work was never done it seemed, there was teatime and dinner and in between she would be running somewhere to help someone with a prasad that would be served at the temple that day.  She loved a good sambharo with some parotha or rotli, for her that was her complete meal.  I am just like her; I love squishing the sambahro between white or crusty bread for a quick lunch.

Ayurveda not only recommends slightly warming up salads to release the energy of the vegetables but cooking dense vegetables and grains makes the nutrients easier to digest and absorb. Harder veggies (carrot) go in first, followed by the slightly softer ones (bell peppers) then the cabbage which barely needs 5 minutes.

I season each veggie just like Mum used to do, the only thing I leave out is the sugar, I find the carrots and cooked cabbage are sweet enough. The entire dish comes together in under 10 minutes. And if you find it easier, buy the pre-shredded salad packs. This sambharo tastes great, warm or cold.

Ingredients:

• 3-4 cups green cabbage, medium sliced
• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 tsp. whole mustard seeds
• ¼ tsp. asafetida (optional)
• 1 medium carrot, peeled and julienned- I prefer large shreds
• 1 small red bell pepper, julienned
• 1 small green bell pepper, julienned
• 4-5 Thai hot chilies slit
• 1 tsp. ground turmeric powder
• ½ tsp. Kashmiri chili powder ( optional- you can sprinkle from the top but don’t color the yellow sambharo)
• 1 tsp. HIMALAYAN salt
• 1tsp. white sugar (optional)
• 1 ½ tsp lemon juice

Method:

1. Heat the oil in a wok or wide pan and, add the asafetida ( leave out if making GF) and the mustard seeds, once they crackle add the cabbage and carrot, and bell peppers seasoning a bit between each vegetable, top with green chilies
   
2. stir-fry for five minutes, cover with a lid if want for three minutes or until the vegetables have wilted in the steam but still have some crunch, adjust the seasoning, then top it off with lemon juice, sugar, and garnish with cilantro.
   
3. Serve with dal and rice or alongside rotlis, paratha, and perhaps a tall glass of salty chaas. 
   

Try eating it like I do between two slices of soft white bread!