Healthy Foods: Cabbage
We’ve found that the reason so many of us hate cabbage is the way the vegetable is cooked. For some reason, most people think there’s no other way of cooking the floppy leaves than sticking them in water or frying them down to a mush! Remember, the longer you cook them, the more pungent they smell because of the sulfur compounds in cabbage. Cooking the vegetable quickly preserves the nutrients as well as the color.
Cabbage contains vitamin A, C, folic acid, calcium, iron and cancer-fighting, immune system-boosting chemicals called indoles. The best way to conserve its nutrients is to boil them for less than 3 minutes in boiling water or steaming the leaves. As soon as the leaves are cut or torn, they start to lose vitamin C, so try to eat them fresh off the head. We like to use them as wrappers for mixed ingredients, even as a seaweed substitute for sushi. The crunchy, nutty flavors of cabbage go well with cold, sour and juicy flavors such as pineapple, orange segments, kiwi and salsa. (more…)
