The Humble Green Cabbage Deserves Your Respect
I have a condition I call “veggie drawer blindness.” Once a vegetable is in the crisper, I tend to forget about it. In an effort to save produce from a wilty death, I’ve started writing notes to myself—Memento-style— and sticking them on the fridge. The current one reads “YOU HAVE CABBAGE.”
Beyond being helpful, the little note is quite cheering. I love cabbage. “Heck yeah,” I say, every time I see the cabbage note.
Green cabbage may not be the sexiest vegetable, but it deserves respect. It’s reliably cheap (around $2!), can survive in the fridge for weeks (even without the note) and versatile. Did you know, for example, that you can cook cabbage down until it’s as sweet and jammy as caramelized onions? Just core and slice it thinly, season with salt and sauté in olive oil until it starts to soften, then cover and transfer to a 350-degree oven until it cooks down into a sticky-sweet mass—I usually let it go for about 45 minutes, stirring every 15 or so and adding water as needed to keep it from sticking. Eat it on crusty bread. Stir it into sour cream and scoop it up with chips. Scramble it into eggs. (Note: This is not an official Milk Street recipe, so make at your own risk!)
The sturdy Brassica is a great friend to pork. One of my favorite comfort dinners is the quick and homey Cabbage, Apples and Kielbasa. Kielbasa permeates the cabbage and apples with salty, porky flavor, but the real hero of the dish is a couple of tablespoons of cider vinegar. The acidic tang balances the richness of the meat and bitterness of the vegetable at the same time, bringing a hit of sunshine to a fairly beige dish. (Nothing against beige food, however.)
Another friend of cabbage? Beans! You can make our Cannellini Beans and Cabbage with Parmesan with or without pancetta—just increase the olive oil a bit if you omit it. Either way, it’s a bowl full of comforting flavors and textures with silky cabbage and creamy beans, punctuated by salty cheese. Great as a side, but hearty enough for a quick main.
Two cabbage dishes I haven’t made yet—but hope to make soon—are Paprika-Pork Stuffed Cabbage (cabbage rolls) and Farfalle with Cabbage, Walnuts and Parmesan, which is loosely inspired by northern Italian pizzoccheri, a hearty dish that pairs buckwheat pasta with potatoes, cabbage, butter and cheese. We brown the cabbage well, which adds depth with infusing the butter with rich, nutty notes. Walnuts and Parmesan contribute umami, while a squeeze of lemon juice brightens the flavors. For a richer, creamier dish, swap out the Parmesan for blue cheese, if you have some on hand. If blue cheese and walnuts aren’t your bag, but you still want to get on the cabbage-and-pasta train, try the slightly more accessible combination of Egg Noodles with Cabbage, Bacon and Sour Cream.
Of course, green cabbage is not the only kind of cabbage. There is also the fancier, frillier savoy cabbage, best showcased by our recipe for Butter-Roasted Cabbage with Citrus, Hazelnuts and Mustard. Looking at a picture of this dish, I take back what I said about cabbage not being sexy. The butter-browned wedges, sprinkled with a fragrant combination of hazelnuts, citrus zest, garlic and coriander, are quite alluring.
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Claire Lower
Claire Lower is the Digital Editor for Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street, with over a decade of experience as a food writer and recipe developer. Claire began writing about food (and drinks) during the blogging boom in the late 2000s, eventually leaving her job as a lab technician to pursue writing full-time. After freelancing for publications such as Serious Eats, Yahoo Food, xoJane and Cherry Bombe Magazine, she eventually landed at Lifehacker, where she served as the Senior Food Editor for nearly eight years. Claire lives in Portland, Oregon with a very friendly dog and very mean cat. When not in the kitchen (or at her laptop), you can find her deadlifting at the gym, fly fishing or trying to master figure drawing at her local art studio.
