Crops & Varieties: Chinese Cabbage
Napa cabbage. Tender, crisp, juicy and mild. Technically a spicy green, rather than a cabbage, it’s different from bok choi in that the leaves are much more curly, with a delicious, somewhat peppery flavor.
Quick tips
Depending on your plans for this vegetable, you might want to separate the ribs from the leaves for most cooked dishes since the more delicate leaves need much less time in the heat than the ribs. Delicious when quickly added at the end of a stir-fry or in fried rice. This versatile cabbage does well with every preparation from raw to quickly, tenderly crisp to silky soft cooked braising.
Add strips in the final stages of preparing a broth or early in a low and slow, thick soups or stews.
Dice it and enjoy it like you would celery. Try it raw in a salad with grated carrot, chopped green onion, sesame oil, rice vinegar, and soy sauce. Use it as a crudite, the leaves are great for dips. If you want to use it in a marinate or salad slightly mellowed it can be blanched. Also, blanch it, if you’d like to use it as a wrap.
Shred it to add your favorite slaw recipe or pickle it.
Try it raw in a salad with grated carrot, chopped green onion, sesame oil, rice vinegar, and soy sauce.
Shred it to add your favorite slaw recipe.
Storage
Store in a perforated plastic or produce bag in crisper drawer of refrigerator. Not great for long-term storage, but will last through the week pretty well.
Recipes
From our Tumblr: Homemade kimchi
Quick tips
Depending on your plans for this vegetable, you might want to separate the ribs from the leaves for most cooked dishes since the more delicate leaves need much less time in the heat than the ribs. Delicious when quickly added at the end of a stir-fry or in fried rice. This versatile cabbage does well with every preparation from raw to quickly, tenderly crisp to silky soft cooked braising.
Add strips in the final stages of preparing a broth or early in a low and slow, thick soups or stews.
Dice it and enjoy it like you would celery. Try it raw in a salad with grated carrot, chopped green onion, sesame oil, rice vinegar, and soy sauce. Use it as a crudite, the leaves are great for dips. If you want to use it in a marinate or salad slightly mellowed it can be blanched. Also, blanch it, if you’d like to use it as a wrap.
Shred it to add your favorite slaw recipe or pickle it.
Try it raw in a salad with grated carrot, chopped green onion, sesame oil, rice vinegar, and soy sauce.
Shred it to add your favorite slaw recipe.
Storage
Store in a perforated plastic or produce bag in crisper drawer of refrigerator. Not great for long-term storage, but will last through the week pretty well.
Recipes
From our Tumblr: Homemade kimchi
Kate’s World Kitchen: Vegetarian potstickers
Fit Pregnancy (who happened to nail this recipe!): Napa Cabbage and Egg Stir Fry
| Boiling: | 6-12 mins (shorter period for using it as a wrap) |
| Braising: | 15-20 mins |
| Sauteing: | 5-7 mins |
| Steaming: | 5-10 mins |
| Stir Frying: | 4-5 mins |
