Posted by kathryn in Salads, Vegetables, Winter and Recipes

I have a complex relationship with red cabbage. On one hand, it’s so pretty with it’s pinky/purpley leaves and shiny exterior, but I find raw red cabbage boring, a little too “healthy” tasting and I never know quite what to do with it. Oh I’ve done the braised with apple thang and that’s okay, but I just don’t get excited about it.

About once a month, during the season, it appears in my organic vegie delivery. Surrounded by all the other beautiful and exciting stuff, it tends to be put in the bottom of the vegetable crisper, covered with everything else. I then forget about it, until a week later most of the other vegies have been used and the red cabbage is still sat there, rebuking me every time I open the door.

At the end of each fortnight I tell myself to cancel the red cabbage, but then I remember how good it is for me, it’s not the cabbages fault, maybe I ‘should’ be more adventurous. Red cabbage guilt, it’s a terrible thing.

And red cabbage is definitely very good for you. It’s a member of the brassica family, which also includes broccoli, cauliflower and brussel sprouts. This family is packed full of antioxidants (which protect us from the nasties like cardiovascular disease) and red cabbage is high in betacarotene, lutein (which protects against macular degeneration) and . . . lycopene! Plus vitamin C, manganese and vitamin K. Red cabbage also contains virtually no kilojoules – about 95 kJ per 100g (about 2 cups full).

This weekend I was off to a BBQ and needed to take a salad. I found this easy-peasy and clever recipe at Chocolate & Zucchini which used red cabbage. Perfect! Of course, I had to change it just a little bit, it being entirely impossible for me to follow any recipe 100%. This is a great way to use red cabbage and it tasted even better an hour after making, when all the flavours had time to marinate together.

This is also a great bugger-I-have-20-mins-before-we-have-to-leave-and-the- house-is-a-rubbish tip-and-my-parents-are-staying-tonight, recipe – a category I find very useful.

Red Cabbage, Dried Fig & Pepita Salad

Serves 6

• 3 tablespoons pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
• 1/2 head red cabbage
• 1 large handful bean sprouts (about 300g)
• 2 garlic shallots (or normal shallots), finely sliced
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 10 dried figs, finely sliced
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons shoyu

Toast the pepitas in a frying pan (no oil) over a medium heat. Toss frequently and watch them carefully as they tend to go from un-toasted to over-toasted very quickly.

Cut the hard stem / core thingy out of the cabbage and finely slice (this is the most tedious part of the recipe, so hang in there). Put into a large bowl with the bean sprouts, shallots, lemon zest and dried figs.

Mix together the rest of the ingredients in a seperate bowl or jam jar and pour over the vegetables. Toss through and if you can, leave for an hour before serving. It’s also very good the next day.

26 June, 2006