Vegan Cabbage Recipes

Welcome to my Vegan Cabbage Recipes, where you'll never have trouble using up a whole head of cabbage again! Packed with fiber and disease-fighting nutrients, cabbage is a cruciferous superstar that supports long-term health. My simple, delicious recipes—from fresh slaws to hearty soups—bring out cabbage’s versatility and longevity benefits, helping you enjoy a nutritious, plant-based diet with ease. Dive in and discover how easy it is to make cabbage a staple for living vibrantly!

Raw Cabbage Recipes

These raw cabbage recipes are naturally packed with cancer-fighting sulforaphane and fiber, both of which help promote longevity. Additionally, adding vinegar or lemon juice to raw cabbage can enhance sulforaphane levels. Still, it's best to avoid doing so with cooked cabbage, as it may cause important nutrients to break down.

Cooked Cabbage Recipes

Eating raw cabbage is the best way to maximize its health-boosting sulforaphane, but raw cabbage isn’t always what we’re in the mood for. Plus, cooking softens the tough cell walls, which can actually increase the absorption of certain nutrients. Thankfully, there are a couple of easy tricks to bring back the sulforaphane in cooked cabbage.

1. 'Chop & Wait' Method

Cabbage, a member of the Brassicaceae family, is renowned for its nutrient density and health benefits. However, cooking them can destroy the enzyme myrosinase, which is essential for producing sulforaphane.

Luckily, there's a way to still reap the benefits of raw cabbage, even after cooking. When you chop or chew raw cruciferous vegetables, the sulforaphane precursor, glucoraphanin, mixes with the enzyme myrosinase, producing sulforaphane, a powerful cancer-fighting compound. Both the precursor and sulforaphane can survive heat, but myrosinase is destroyed by cooking. Without this enzyme, no sulforaphane is produced.

The good news is that you can still cook these vegetables and get their full benefits by using the 'chop & wait' method. Simply chop your cabbage and wait 40 minutes before cooking. This allows the sulforaphane to form before the enzyme is destroyed, ensuring you don’t lose its cancer-fighting power during cooking.

2. 'Short-Cut Mustard' Method

If you don’t have time to wait 40 minutes, there’s a quicker solution: add a pinch of mustard powder to your cooked cabbage. The mustard powder contains myrosinase, which helps restore sulforaphane production, making cooked cabbage as beneficial as raw. This simple trick allows you to enjoy the health benefits of cooked cabbage without the wait.