Northeast Indian

Singju (Raw Vegetable Salad with Fermented Fish)

Name: Singju (Raw Vegetable Salad with Fermented Fish)
Total time: 20 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Northeast Indian
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

Bandana Gogoi @bandana_ghy

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.

20 min Easy Pescatarian Gluten free Dairy free Halal

Ingredients

Serves

The quantities follow this count.

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.

Watch how to cook Singju (Raw Vegetable Salad with Fermented Fish)

Someone making it start to finish, so you can see what the steps look like.

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.

The dish at the centre
- Akhuni Yam (Fermented Soybean with Yam and Mustard Greens)
  
  25 min
The cooked vegetable
- Akhuni Yam (Fermented Soybean with Yam and Mustard Greens)
  
  25 min
The protein alongside
- Lauki Chana Dal (Bottle Gourd and Lentils)
  
  45 min
What it is eaten with
- Galho (One Pot Rice, Greens and Chicken Porridge)
  
  40 min

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.

Every tracked allergen in Singju (Raw Vegetable Salad with Fermented Fish)
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

Estimated, per serving

Calories: 50 kcal
Protein: 3 g
Carbs: 8 g
Fat: 1 g
Fiber: 2 g
Sugar: 2 g
Sodium: 240 mg
Saturated fat: 0 g

Estimated values. Actual nutrition varies with ingredients, brands, and how you cook.

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.