Our 27 Favorite Cabbage Recipes (2024)

FAQs

Why do you put baking soda in cabbage? ›

Baking soda does help green vegetables retain color, but it causes undesirable color changes in red cabbage—it turned blue. The science can be distilled to this: Adding baking soda to cooking water makes it slightly alkaline, which stabilizes the green color of chlorophyll.

Although you get different nutrients if you cook or ferment it, raw red cabbage in particular might give you the best nutritional boost per serving. Slice it very thinly and leave it for about 10 minutes to help bring out the fullest, most complex flavors. Then add it to salads or sandwiches or turn it into coleslaw.

It's a matter of taste tho, of course. If you use regular bacon, turkey bacon, or beef bacon, you'll want to add a few tablespoons of oil or butter to the fat to make sure there's enough. Sugar: Plain ol' granulated sugar, the amount also to taste. It brings out the subtle, natural sweetness of Southern Fried Cabbage.

Napa cabbage has a more tender texture and sweeter flavor than green cabbage. Green cabbage may be the more "basic" option on the list, but that quality makes it incredibly versatile. Bon Appétit notes that it works in almost any cooking situation, from braising to grilling.

Add herbs. Adding the right herbs can also help ease digestion. A few of Cording's favorites that pair particularly well with cabbage include ginger and turmeric.

Crisp it up: Shredded cabbage stays perky if it's soaked in cold water. This also helps cut the pungent edge. Drain well before combining with other ingredients.

Cabbage is an exceptionally healthy food. It has an outstanding nutrient profile and is especially high in vitamins C and K. In addition, eating cabbage may even help lower the risk of certain diseases, improve digestion, and ease inflammation.

Cabbage does double detox duty. Its diuretic properties help rid your body of excess liquid, carrying toxins along with it. Like other cruciferous veggies, cabbage is also sulfur-rich, helping your liver break down toxins so they can be more easily expelled.

To get the most benefit, try to consume ½ to ¾ cup cooked or 1 ½ cup raw cabbage per day at least 5 days per week. This is pretty easy to do since there are so many ways to prepare cabbage. Traditional methods of steaming or boiling cabbage can extract flavor and nutrients.

Then, there is the red cabbage which tends to turn blue when cooked and so, most commonly just eaten raw. If you do want to cook it, add a touch of acid like lemon juice or vinegar to lessen the effect.

What does pouring salt into a cabbage do? ›

The salt then draws moisture out of the cabbage's cells through osmosis, forming a salty brine. This brine is important because it submerges the cabbage and deprives the Lactobacillus and other microorganisms of oxygen – the second step!

Cabbage can be particularly beneficial for people with diabetes, but its high nutritional value makes it a healthy choice. This vegetable is loaded with nutrients, including vitamin B6, vitamin C, vitamin K, manganese, and folate, and it is also high in fiber.

A significant reason for the rising price of cabbage is drought which makes it hard to grow the crop. Generally, cabbage needs a lot of water to grow and if there's not enough it can't reach reach its full bloom. Thus, this leads to a shortage of cabbage, leading its prices to go up.

Green Cabbage

It's the most common grocery store variety, and one of the most affordable, too. Like all cabbages and brassicas, green cabbage can be eaten raw and cooked.

Napa cabbage is like a regular tightly packed cabbage but oblong-shaped. On the other hand, bok choy has a bulbous stem with loose oval leaves. When it comes to the flavor profile, napa cabbage is slightly sweet with a hint of peppery taste. Bok choy also has a mild and sweet taste but with a slight bitterness.

contain anthocyanin, a molecule that is a reddish colour in its naturally acidic environment: fruit. But, when it comes into contact with alkaline ingredients (the baking soda in a cake batter, for ex.), the anthocyanin turns blue.

The cabbage juice is called an indicator because it can tell you the pH of a solution based on the color that it changes. The vinegar will turn the cabbage juice red because it is an acid (acetic acid). The baking soda will turn the cabbage juice greenish-yellow because it is a base (sodium bicarbonate).

Growing aromatic plants amongst the cabbage-type plants — like hyssop, thyme, wormwood, celery, dill, sage and onions — will all help to confuse these insects. BT (Bacillus thuringiensis) or Dipel, if you spray each week, can also control these insects.

This is a bad practice, however, and you should avoid adding baking soda when boiling any type of vegetable. It has various unwelcome effects, such as softening the vegetable, altering the vegetable's flavor, destroying thiamine content, and hastening the loss of vitamin C.