Did You Know Cabbage Was Sexy?

Our modern palate has little idea of how special cabbage has been through the ages, how its mild flavor and crisp texture is wonderfully adaptable, and how beyond brilliant it is for our health.

Cabbage is rich in a number of really healthy nutrients, just a few include of them are vitamin C, sulforaphane, indole-3-carinol (I3C), and Vitamin K. Vitamin C is well-known for it’s immune-supporting and anti-oxidant properties. Sulforaphane is a sulfur-rich compound found in cruciferous vegetables like cabbage. It becomes activated when the plant is damaged (cut, chopped or chewed), and may be most available when the vegetable is very lightly cooked (see the perfect recipe below!) Sulfur could be a blog all to itself - known as the ‘beauty mineral’, it’s supports healing throughout the body including healing stretch marks and scars, improve skin conditions such as acne and liver spots, and help the body heal digestive issues, improve heart health and immune response, and fight cancer.

I3C appears in studies to increase the inhibition of the development of cancers of the stomach, colon, liver, lung, breast, uterus, and prostate. It’s anti-aging by reducing oxidative stress through scavenging free radicals in the body, and it helps the body to release ‘false estrogens’. Cabbage is also unusually rich in Vitamin K, essential for normal blood clotting. Two and a half ounces (75 grams) of cooked cabbage has over 81 mcg vitamin K, providing nearly all of the adult RDA of 90-12 mcg.

I like recipes that taste special, but don’t involve a special shopping trip; in this case, except for maybe the cabbage, the ingredients here are usually on our shelves. I reinvent this fun cabbage recipe a few times a year, often at a seasonal change. It checks a lot of boxes - feeling warming in cool weather, cooling in hot weather, a little exotic when I’m craving carry-out, and healthy when I’m trying to stay on track.

Recipe: Beth’s Yummy Thai Cabbage with Peanut Sauce (or Not)

The ingredients and the process are both super-simple. I’m including nuanced directions to jumpstart the confidence of the newbies in the kitchen. I’ve found that we can affect the appeal and even the taste of our dish by the shape we cut our vegetables, so have some fun with this.

Pan Ingredients:

1# green head cabbage, which is usually about a half of a dense head of cabbage; cut into thin, rectangular strips (not shredding, which would make the dish wet and gloppy.)
2-3 large carrots, cut into matchsticks.
1-2 TB toasted sesame oil

Cooking:

Heat the sesame oil in a large, heavy skillet or wok. (NOT Teflon!)
Add the carrots, stir a little when needed so all sides are exposed to heat.
When they are just warmed through, add all the cabbage.
I use a lid at this point to accelerate the cooking, removing after a few minutes to stir and distribute the moisture and heat.
This is now a sauté, stir occasionally. Remove pan from heat when the cabbage is warmed through, starting to droop, slightly translucent and still bright in color. In other words, cooked lightly.

While cabbage is cooking, make the sauce:

1/3 cup natural peanut butter (100% peanuts, not Jiff.)
1 tsp salt
2 TB apple cider vinegar (ACV)
1 TB honey
1 TB tamari, soy sauce, or coconut aminos
If needed, add hot water (a tsp at a time) to thin the nut butter if it’s too dry.
Use a fork to stir. It’s stiff at first, and then you want it to become a thin paste.
Taste it. It’s ok if its salty and pungent, as it must flavor all the veggies. But even though it’s a little rich at this stage, you should generally like the flavor right now. THIS is where you adjust the flavors to appeal to your family, such as more sweet or sour or spicy. I’m usually adding 1-2 more dashes of the ACV.

Assemble:

Add the wet sauce to the sautéed cabbage, gently combining with a silicon spatula or wooden spoon. (Metal utensils will bruise the cabbage.)
Spoon into your serving bowl.
Garnish with scallions (green onions) cut at a sharp angle.
Serve immediately warm, or later chilled.

Variations:

Add more honey and/or ACV: 1-2 TB will ramp up the sweet-and-sour quality.
Nut butter issues: Change or eliminate for all the reasons. Could use almond, cashew, sun butter, tahini, or NONE, which would leave you with a sweet-and-sour type dish, also delicious.
Change main flavor: Especially if you opt out of the nut butter(s): Add chopped cilantro and or fresh mint before serving.
Flavor: Add shredded ginger (I did in the batch above) or chopped garlic to cook with the carrots.
Spice: Add 1-2 tsp or to taste of red pepper flakes. Or shot of tabasco.
Crunch: Use crunchy peanut butter. Top with toasted cashews; ‘raw’ cashews baked at 300F for about 20 minutes or until light brown and toasty.
Vegetables: This recipe easily adapts to additional vegetables added to the pan, such as sliced water chestnuts, shredded kale, wedges of sweet onion, or strips of Napa cabbage. Purple cabbage will bring the same health benefits, but fades in color as it cooks; cooking longer results in going from a light purple a less appealing gray.