Cabbage

Storage

Most varieties will keep in the fridge for a fortnight or so.

Prep & Cooking tips

Remove the outer leaves and cut out their tough central rib. Stack the leaves, roll them up like a cigar and slice into fine shreds. Cleave the tightly packed main centre into manageable quarters, remove the tough root core with a V-shaped cut, and slice it crossways as thickly or thinly as required. Or, simply cut into stout wedges for roasting.

Cabbage is a versatile veg: shred into stir-fries, curries, soups and stews. When raw and finely shredded, its fresh crunch is a welcome addition to salads and slaws. It’s also good quickly stir-fried, or cooked long and slow.

Video: How to Cook Cabbage

Easy ideas

1. Comfort

Things needn’t always be complicated. These greens are often at their best simply steamed, boiled or slightly wilted in a pan. 4-5 mins, at the most, is all you need. Season with a little salt and pepper, and finish with a bit of butter or olive oil and maybe a restrained squeeze of lemon. Try folding your wilted cabbage into buttery mashed potato to make Irish colcannon, or mixing with cold mash and chopped leftovers and frying as bubble and squeak cakes.

2. Fresh sauerkraut

Although lacking the savoury depth of the fermented form, you can approximate the key notes by braising half a shredded cabbage with 300ml of apple juice or cider, 1 tbsp of cider vinegar, 1 tsp of brown sugar, 4 smashed juniper berries and a generous seasoning of salt and black pepper. Great with bangers.

3. The finishing touch

Very finely shredded, these greens make a fresh and healthy finish to a robust soup or stew. A dark winter minestrone, heavy with tomatoes and beans, would be ideal; even a deep, savoury bowl of miso can be enriched with a tangle of noodle-thin greens. A handful thrown into a stir-fry in the closing minutes adds colour, and can be left slightly undercooked if you’d like a slight crunch.

Goes well with

Alliums (Chives, Garlic, Onion)
Anchovies
Apple
Beef
Cured pork
Lamb
Mustard
Smoked fish
Soy sauce
Spices (Caraway, Chilli, Coriander seed, Ginger, Juniper, Mustard seed, Nutmeg, Pepper)