native to: Mediterranean region
in season here: summer-winter
Cabbage is another brassica, or cruciferous vegetable, related to the broccoli I talked about last week and the kale I'll get to pretty soon. In fact, "brassica" actually means "cabbage" in latin. It comes in three main types: green, red, and savoy. Some "red" cabbages are actually purple, while most of the ruffled savoy varieties are green or even yellowish. It was developed from wild cabbage, which doesn't form heads and looks more like collards or kale. Historians mostly think it was brought to Europe by wandering Celts around 600 BCE, and it was highly regarded in ancient Greece and Rome as being generally good for whatever ails you. Later, fermented cabbage such as sauerkraut was carried by Dutch sailors as an antiscorbutic (a source of vitamin C, eaten to prevent or relieve scurvy).
Cabbage is another good cancer fighter and also helps lower cholesterol (for that particular feature, steaming is your best bet). Savoy cabbage is particularly good for cancer prevention, while red cabbage is the best choice for all-around nutrition. Cabbage juice is a long-standing remedy for stomach ulcers, and more recent research is finding that cabbage itself is just generally good for the whole digestive system.
It's most nutritious raw or only lightly cooked, with a quick sauté being the current favorite.* Once cabbage is cut, it begins to lose its vitamin C content, so precut cabbage isn't the best choice. However, it contains enzymes that convert its glucosinolates to isothiocyanates (which fight cancer), so it's not a bad idea to let chopped cabbage sit 5-10 minutes before cooking.
I have to admit, most of the debate over raw vs. cooked, steamed vs. microwaved, or whatever tomorrow's hot research topic is -- eaten with the right hand or the left, for all I know -- is kind of lost on me. I like to keep it simple: the way to get the most nutrition out of your vegetables is to eat them, so the cooking (or not cooking) method that gets the things inside you is the one I'd go for. Cabbage is a quarter calorie per gram, so it's not like you have to limit yourself.
Read more:
label-style nutrition information for raw cabbage
label-style nutrition information for cooked cabbage
whfoods.com
*I suspect the kind of sautéing they recommend is not the method I use, which includes a lot of butter or bacon grease and results in a fair amount of caramelization. Actually, the healthy-cooking arbiters would probably call what I do to it "frying."
Versión en español: this post is also available in Spanish.
Esperanta traduko: this post is also available in Esperanto, because Dana is a language geek.
