 Photo: Courtesy of . |
This week, my CSA column pays tribute to cabbage and its summertime-shredded version, coleslaw. The recipe, , comes from Mark Bittman. But we鈥檒l get back to that in a minute. First, a bit about cabbage.
The crunchy, leafy veggie comes in something like three-dozen varieties: There鈥檚 green cabbage and red cabbage, Napa and Savoy. Cauliflower, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and kohlrabi all fall into the Brassicaceae family. Even rutabegas and bok choy are distant cousins.
In her book Vegetables: A Biography (which ), Evelyne Bloch-Dano spends an entire chapter on cabbage. It鈥檚 鈥渁 concentrate of affective memory, a substantial food for the body,鈥 she writes, 鈥渂ut also a vegetable that speaks to us of a territory, a country, a past, a history, a vegetable that has
 Spicy No-Mayo Coleslaw. Photo by . |
made its way into our everyday language.鈥 For those of us who participate in CSAs, it鈥檚 a veggie that frequently makes it way into our weekly shares.
Receiving a whole head of cabbage several weeks running requires some creative thinking to use it up. After trying several recipes, my husband perfected a version of kimchi that adds a crunchy, spicy side to most summer dinners. And this past March, The New York Times ran a great piece called 鈥溾 that included what鈥檚 still one of the best cabbage recipes we鈥檝e tried to date, . It鈥檚 just delicious.
Last week, when faced with a head of Napa cabbage, I opted to make Bittman鈥檚 . It was quick, easy, and great for people who dislike mayo (I don鈥檛 fall into that group, but I know several who do). Don鈥檛 skimp on the jalapeno; the recipe just calls for one, but it gives the slaw a nice kick. We ate ours with some grilled halibut and sweet corn. Yum.
If you鈥檙e not into coleslaw, here are a few other ways to use up your cabbage:
, Mark Bittman/The New York Times (note, this link contains three recipes; scroll to the bottom to find this one)
, The New York Times
, Serious Eats
, Alton Brown/Food Network
Next week: Radishes. One can only saut茅 them or eat them on salad so many times. Some other suggestions coming your way.