Best Sauteed Cabbage Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Why do you put baking soda in cabbage? ›

Baking soda does help green vegetables retain color, but it causes undesirable color changes in red cabbage—it turned blue. The science can be distilled to this: Adding baking soda to cooking water makes it slightly alkaline, which stabilizes the green color of chlorophyll.

Once people started roasting them at a high heat, perhaps with a little extra salt and fat (like bacon), it was a game-changer. You can also try slicing cabbage thin and sautéing it to maintain some of its crunchy texture.

Whatever cabbage you are using, cut off the dry end of the stalk. If using Hispi, quarter the cabbage lengthways through its core. If using a regular white cabbage, cut it into manageable wedges, again through the core. Steam for about 10 minutes until it looks rather relaxed and easy to cut through.

Heat the oil and a knob of the butter in a deep ovenproof saucepan. Add the onion and cabbage and fry for 3–4 minutes. Add the cider and redcurrant jelly, season with salt and pepper, bring to the boil and boil for a few minutes.

Add herbs. Adding the right herbs can also help ease digestion. A few of Cording's favorites that pair particularly well with cabbage include ginger and turmeric.

Crisp it up: Shredded cabbage stays perky if it's soaked in cold water. This also helps cut the pungent edge. Drain well before combining with other ingredients.

Salt is your friend: Salt acts as a natural counter to bitter tastes. Adding a bit more salt or something salty like capers to bitter-tasting cabbage will dampen the bitter tastes and increase the sensation from the natural sugars.

Yes, cabbage sizzles in stir-fries; simmers in soups, stews, and braises; adds healthy crunch to salads; and does wonders for casseroles, gratins, and meat pies — cabbage does it all, and for a bargain price. The key to cooking cabbage: Don't overcook it. Cabbage is sweet and aromatic when cooked correctly.

4. You overcook the cabbage. Overcooked cabbage is rather unappetizing as it becomes too soft and attains "that" annoying smell that dissuades many from cooking cabbage.

Douse the cabbage in vinegar water, if desired.

Vinegar kills some types of bacteria and helps killing mold and mildew that could have grown on the cabbage.

Why does cooked cabbage taste so good? ›

As it cooks, green cabbage releases its natural sugars, giving it a milder and slightly sweeter profile. However, overcooking can lead it to develop a sulfurous aroma, so keep a keen eye on the cooking time to ensure its flavor remains palatable and pleasant.

Cabbage. The outer layer isn't going to be eaten—the leaves are tougher and undesirable to many—so why wash cabbage? There's a good reason: Worms or other insects could be inside the cabbage, so to be safe, follow these steps for cleaning and washing it.

The secret is to shred it quite finely and cook it briefly in rapidly boiling water. What I do is pack it down quite tightly into a saucepan, sprinkle with salt, then place the pan over a high heat, pour in boiling water from the kettle, which re-boils instantly, and time it for 3-5 minutes.

Best ways to prepare cabbage once you've drained it

Giving sliced wedges of cabbage a quick roasting session in the oven will help them to caramelize and get nice and crispy. Instead of getting soggy and overcooked, the cabbage will have a nice crisp texture and a more complex flavor than raw cabbage.

Baking Soda is definitely a base and not an acid, so the cabbage juice will turn blue. It turns pink in an acid, like vinegar. You can test it yourself at home with things you probably already have around your house.

contain anthocyanin, a molecule that is a reddish colour in its naturally acidic environment: fruit. But, when it comes into contact with alkaline ingredients (the baking soda in a cake batter, for ex.), the anthocyanin turns blue.

The cabbage juice is called an indicator because it can tell you the pH of a solution based on the color that it changes. The vinegar will turn the cabbage juice red because it is an acid (acetic acid). The baking soda will turn the cabbage juice greenish-yellow because it is a base (sodium bicarbonate).

Apply Diatomaceous Earth for Bug-free Cabbage

I've had good luck using diatomaceous earth if I end up with the cabbage moth larvae, plus you can use products with Bt such as Thuricide.

This is a bad practice, however, and you should avoid adding baking soda when boiling any type of vegetable. It has various unwelcome effects, such as softening the vegetable, altering the vegetable's flavor, destroying thiamine content, and hastening the loss of vitamin C.