Northeast Indian
Singju (Raw Vegetable Salad with Fermented Fish)
Singju (Raw Vegetable Salad with Fermented Fish) is Northeast Indian home cooking, eaten at lunch and dinner. On the plate it is the condiment and the fresh side. Below is what usually sits beside it, what it does and does not contain, and what else to cook once you have made it.
Ingredients
- 3 cup cabbage, thinly sliced
- 1 cup lotus stem, thinly sliced
- 1 tbsp ngari (fermented fish)
- 2 tbsp roasted chickpea flour
- 2 dried red chili
- 2 tbsp spring onion, chopped
- 1/4 tsp salt
How to cook it
- Toast the ngari and dried red chilies in a dry pan over low heat for a couple of minutes until fragrant, then crush them together into a coarse paste.
- Dry roast the chickpea flour in the same pan for a minute until it smells nutty, then set aside to cool.
- Thinly slice the cabbage and lotus stem and place them in a large bowl.
- Add the crushed ngari and chili paste, the roasted chickpea flour, and the chopped spring onion.
- Toss everything together by hand, squeezing gently so the vegetables soften slightly and take on the seasoning.
- Taste before adding salt, since the ngari is already salty, and serve right away at room temperature; the fermented fish, not any cooking, is what makes this raw salad a real Manipuri everyday side rather than a plain coleslaw.
Serve it with
A Northeast Indian dinner is a plate rather than a single dish. These are the courses that normally sit beside Singju (Raw Vegetable Salad with Fermented Fish), read from the same composition Dinejot builds a real meal from.
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The dish at the centre
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The cooked vegetable
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The protein alongside
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What it is eaten with
A course labelled with another kitchen's name comes from a cuisine in the same family, which is where this plate usually borrows it from.
Safe at your table
Dinejot tracks ten allergens and tags every one of them by hand, so the absences below are as deliberate as the presences. Singju (Raw Vegetable Salad with Fermented Fish) carries fish. It is free of the remaining 9 allergens on that list.
| Allergen | In this dish | Cook this instead |
|---|---|---|
| Peanuts | No | |
| Tree nuts | No | |
| Dairy | No | |
| Gluten | No | |
| Shellfish | No | |
| Eggs | No | |
| Soy | No | |
| Fish | Yes | Aloo Pitika (Mashed Potato with Mustard Oil) |
| Sesame | No | |
| Coconut | No |
These tags are set by a person rather than inferred from an ingredient list, and they describe the recipe as written here. Read the labels on whatever you actually buy.
What it brings to the plate
Bands, not numbers. Dinejot does not weigh anybody's food, so it says light, moderate or hearty and stops there. This dish was read and set by hand.
- Calorie band
- Light
- Protein
- Low
- Food groups it covers
- Vegetables and Meat or fish
- How this was set
- Hand audited
When to cook it
Singju (Raw Vegetable Salad with Fermented Fish) takes about 20 minutes from a cold stove to the table, and the cooking itself is easy going. It is eaten at lunch and dinner. Nothing in the calendar rules it out, so it is a year round dish.
Watch someone make it
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More to cook
Cooked from the same things
Other dishes built on cabbage and fish.
From the same kitchens
More cooking from Northeast India.
Does the same job on the plate
Swap any of these in when you want a meal the same shape.
Cook this with your whole family
Dinejot plans breakfast, lunch and dinner as whole plates, built around the cooking you call home and filtered for the allergies at your table.
Meal suggestions support your goals. They are not medical advice. Please ask your doctor about your family's health needs.