Celebrating Cabbage

Cabbage may be deeply unfashionable, but I’m rooting for a comeback.

It’s often the cheapest thing going in the produce aisle, they last forever in the fridge, are low calorie, full of vitamins, quick to prepare and extremely versatile. I started cooking with cabbage because one arrived in my vegetable box delivery at least once a fortnight; at one point I had three cabbages sitting in my fridge. Not easily defeated, I started using them.

Simple Boiled Cabbage

The simplest way to cook any green cabbage is to cut it in half, de-core and slice thinly. Boil in salted water for 3 – 4 minutes, or until tender but not mushy. Drain and toss in a little olive oil, lemon juice and salt and pepper – just as though you were dressing a salad. It’s the perfect side to any stew, such as my Caesar braised beef.

Crisp Coleslaw

Despite its matronly reputation, cabbage features heavily in a much-loved food of the moment: coleslaw. Pack it into a sandwich, eat alongside BBQ’d meats or layer into a fish taco.

I particularly love this lightened version of coleslaw stuffed into a bun with BBQ pulled chicken.

Stir-Fry

I add sliced cabbage to a noodle stir-fry because it pads out the whole dish and ends up looking like a very generous plate of food while keeping the calories way down. The bitterness of cabbage works really well with the sweet maple hoisin sauce in this stir-fry. Very quick to cook, too.

Clearly there’s more to cabbage than the miserable, mushy vegetable that put so many people off for years. Next time you see a big pile of these in the grocery store, pick one up and give some of these recipes a try!