When you have a large crop of cabbage from the garden or farmstand, you don't have time to casually include it in complicated recipes or to frantically figure out how to use it up before it goes bad without getting sick of it. You want to make the most of your harvest and to actually enjoy it.
Here at Plant to Plate, we like to keep things simple! Here are some of my favorite ways to use or preserve cabbage:
- Stirfry it with garlic and ginger.
- Stirfry it with garlic and lemon balm or lemon verbena.
- Add it to other sauté and stirfry dishes.
- Add it to stovetop pastas along with broccoli and coconut milk.
- Make a simple chow mein with cabbage, celery, garlic, and soba noodles, which are made from buckwheat.
- Ferment it in a sauerkraut or kimchi.
- Use it as a Base or Partial Base of an Interesting Salad. (Wondering why I capitalized those letters? Read more about Interesting Salads here!)
- Make a Simple Salad with cabbage, carrots, and peanuts or almonds.
- Make a tincture. An herb:solvent weight ratio of 1:5 at 40% alcohol is suggested for a cabbage leaf tincture.
- Blanch and freeze it to save it for later. Cabbage is best when it is blanched before freezing, as this allows it to retain the most flavor and nutrients. Learn more about blanching here.
- Dry it as an alternate preservation method.
Further Reading
Growing cabbage? Check out these quick facts like its best growing conditions, companion plants, and expected yields.
Cabbage is also featured in these articles:
- Quick Facts: Growing Cabbage
- How to Preserve Your Harvest: Fermentation
- The Interesting Salad Protocol: How to Build an Interesting Salad