Easy and Delicious Boiled Cabbage Recipe - The How-To Home (2024)

FAQs

Why do you put vinegar in cabbage when boiling it? ›

Then, there is the red cabbage which tends to turn blue when cooked and so, most commonly just eaten raw. If you do want to cook it, add a touch of acid like lemon juice or vinegar to lessen the effect.

How to boil cabbage. Put the cabbage leaves or shredded cabbage in a large pan and cover halfway with water. Bring to the boil and cook for 3-5 mins or until tender.

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.

A few whole cloves added to the boiling water for cabbage impart a delicately complementary flavor and aroma and may help to prevent gas during digestion. Other sweet spices that may be carminative include allspice, cinnamon and ginger.

Overcook the hearty leaves, and you'll end up with limp, stinky mush that no one wants to eat. By paying close attention to cooking time, and with the addition of some seasoning, you can turn boiled cabbage into a quick and delicious side dish — you can even make it the star of the show.

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.

Bring the water or stock to a gentle boil over medium-high heat, then add the cabbage. Simmer the cabbage for 10-15 minutes, or until it's as tender as you like it. If you cut the cabbage into shreds, you may only need to cook it for 5 minutes.

Add about 8 cups of water to a pot.

It's Packed With Nutrients

Half a cup of cooked cabbage has about a third the vitamin C you need for the day. It also gives you doses of fiber, folate, potassium, magnesium, vitamins A and K, and more.

To ferment vegetables, such as cabbage, we take advantage of these two qualities – it's our golden ticket to fermentation! First, we add enough salt to make it difficult for competing microorganisms to survive. The salt then draws moisture out of the cabbage's cells through osmosis, forming a salty brine.

What happens when you mix cabbage juice and lemon juice? ›

Substances such as lemon juice and vinegar turn the cabbage juice red because they are acidic. Ammonia turns the cabbage juice into a blue/green color because it is a base, a material that tastes bitter and makes an acid neutral. Water does nothing, as it is a neutral.

The salt pulls moisture out of the cabbage, seasons it, and leaves you with a super-crunchy texture that isn't raw or tough-tasting. Rinse! Rinse well to purge the salt. Get rid of the excess water.

Cabbage and Its Cousins

Cruciferous vegetables, like broccoli and cabbage, have the same sugars that make beans gassy. Their high fiber can also make them hard to digest. It will be easier on your stomach if you cook them instead of eating raw.

Cabbage is rich in fiber and glucosinolates and helps the body retain water. It helps maintain the bulkiness of the food as it moves through the bowels and thus treats constipation.

The negative side of cabbage

While cabbage offers lots of vitamins and minerals your body needs, there can be a downside to eating cabbage. Cruciferous vegetables like cabbage can cause gas, bloating and diarrhea. It's best to slowly introduce these vegetables into your diet and gradually increase your intake.

Red cabbage offers another bonus: It's rich in natural pigments called anthocyanins, which new research suggests may help boost insulin production and lower blood sugar levels. Finally, cabbage is often prepared with vinegar, which can help lower the GL of your whole meal.

If you add vinegar it will stay the original color. The reddish pigment in the cabbage acts as a pH indicator like litmus paper. Your method of cooking is alkaline which isn't bad but would change the color of cabbage.

Some cleaning enthusiasts recommend boiling a pan of vinegar to help get rid of strong odours by turning the acetic acid into a vapour that might more readily react with any volatile bases in a room.