The Best Greens for your Green: Cabbage

Here is the first of a new series of Cheap Vegan posts called “The Best Greens for your Green”. These posts will highlight cheap produce and explain their health benefits, so you can learn what produce will get you the most bang for your buck. Additionally, each post will have an easy recipe at the end so you can try it out if you’re not much of a cook.

Cabbage

• Price: 1 head = $1 - $2
• Expiration: about 2 - 3 weeks (if not longer)
• Servings: 1 head = 10 (1 cup) servings
  Bottom Line: costs about 10¢ - 20¢ a serving
  

Health
Cabbage is a member of the cruciferous vegetable family. Cruciferous vegetables usually resemble flowers and include cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, cress, bok choy, and similar leafy green vegetables. Cruciferous vegetables have been linked to cancer prevention, especially when steamed for a short period of time. Cruciferous vegetables like cabbage should be incorporated in to your diet about 4-5 times a week in 1-2 cup servings. Since cabbage cooks down so much, 1 to 2 cups is a very easy serving size to meet, and one head can make multiple servings.

Cabbage is also a good source of Vitamin C, making it a great choice for soups.
**Cabbage is also a cure for stomach ulcers! See response here.

Cooking
Cabbage sometimes has a bad reputation of being boiled, smelly, and boring. But when prepared well, cabbage can be a wonderful addition to a salad, stir-fry, or soup.

If you want to cook cabbage, slowly cooking it in a soup or lightly stir frying/steaming will give you a great flavor without the harsh boiled cabbage smell and taste. Cabbage is often used in Asian dishes like stir-fries and spring rolls and is also great for soups. Learn how to make easy homemade soups here and a recipe for a vegetable soup with cabbage here.

Raw cabbage is often used for salads and coleslaw. Coleslaw is an easy familiar way to eat cabbage, and luckily many coleslaw recipes don’t require mayo at all.
The recipe below is an easy way to make a cheap vegan slaw to go with any sandwich or to eat on it’s own as a snack.

Coleslaw Recipe

• 1 head thin sliced cabbage
• 1 or 2 thin sliced carrots
• 1/2 diced red pepper
• 1/2 small white onion, thinly sliced
• enough olive oil to lightly coat your veggies
• squeeze of lemon juice
• 1 tsp sugar or agave
• salt and pepper to taste

Prepare your vegetables. Mix ingredients together in a large bowl and leave to soak overnight. If you prefer, you can heat the non-vegetable ingredients first. That’s it.