How to get ANYONE enjoying cabbage!

woman-chopping-vegetablesThe poor cabbage eh? Always the brunt of jokes about school dinners and raucous farts.

But in all honesty, cabbage is an absolute super food. Not only is it full of vitamins and minerals but it’s the number one cure for stomach ulcers. Not only that but it’s been reported to shrink cancerous tumours.

The question is, how can you make it palatable when all your memories are of soggy school meals served with lumpy mashed potato and watery gravy?

As you might remember, we had a white cabbage as big as a dolphin in last week’s Abel and Cole box, so I asked on my various social media networks for recipe ideas and here is what online friends came up with:

Cabbage wraps

Polish pigeons” – mince meat and rice wrapped in cabbage leaves with tomato sauce

Beef and cabbage stew

“Kappessupp” – a warming North German beef Stew

Cabbage pancake

Japanese cabbage pancake – reported to be the ultimate comfort food!

Slaw salad

Thinly sliced white cabbage, white or red onion and grated carrot mixed together make a delicious slaw salad.

Stir fry

veggie stir fry with onions,carrots,greens(or any other veg),some ginger,garlic and tamari ans serve with noodles or rice

Sweet and succulent

lightly fried with some nuts and seeds, and a drizzle of maple syrup

Bubble and squeak

One of my personal all-time favourite and MY ultimate comfort food – Bubble and squeak

Soup

cabbage and sausage soup. Apparently you cook the cabbage and any other leftover veg , whiz it, fry the sausage, chop it up , chuck it in and cook a bit longer.

Slow cooked cabbage

Fry off an onion with some cinnamon or maybe cumin, add chopped cabbage and (lots of as I love them) raisins and a little water and some vinegar (small amount of apple cider or balsamic here) or lemon juice and some sweet freedom or maple syrup or sugar.  Then cook long and slow until softened (maybe 40mins) on top of stove.  Taste and add, as necessary – more spice, more vinegar / lemon juice, more sweet stuff, veg bouillon, mix and cook some more if not soft enough and try again.  Serve (with mash and homemade beanburgers for preference).

But what about the juice? It’s the juice that has some of the most amazing properties. Well I think I might just have found the answer; check on the video below:

We’d like to thank Philips for sending us an Avance juicer and Abel and Cole for our delicious fruit and vegetable boxes so we can get the nation enjoying the wonders of cabbage juice!

2 Comments

  1. Steve on February 19, 2012 at 7:39 pm

    Thanks for this – We (happily) eat seasonally here in Montenegro – not much choice really as imported vegetables are expensive, hard to find and poor quality.

    Cabbage is very much a winter staple here in Montenegro and the Balkans in general but it’s been a long season and we’re tiring of cabbage. We’ve tried Local variations of the above but we’ve never tried anything like the slow cooked cabbage recipe. We’ll be trying that tomorrow tonight – might have to substitue honey or golden syrup for the maple syrup but it’ll be fun experimenting!



  2. Mrs Green on February 26, 2012 at 8:48 am

    @Steve: Interesting that you are virtually forced to eat seasonally and locally – over here it’s pretty hard to do! Agreed we would be eating cabbage, leeks and potatoes all winter long if we didn’t import food. Slow cooked cabbage is one of our favourites; its especially lovely during winter as it warms you right through 🙂