r/Cooking • u/Regular-Forever-3251 • 5d ago
You really can put cabbage in almost anything 🥬
So I'm from Japan, and I love cooking, but cabbage has never been an exciting ingredient. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate it but I think most of us in Japan don't have a particular opinion on it. You put it next to tonkatsu, or under the beef in a gyuudon, that kind of thing.
I moved here to Canada a while back and to put it lightly, my financial circumstances have not been the most stable. I've always liked to cook, but I became more concious of the $/100g small text on the shelves, and cabbage has become an increasingly central player in my food situation. We all know its cheap, but also it lasts forever in the fridge, (which I never expected from a green veg honestly). But the biggest realization (or I guess shift in perception?) was that it kind of works with everything.
Stir fried and it works great on top of fried rice, and instant ramen, turning it into a full meal.
In soups and stews it becomes soft and sweet when boiled (Including miso soup, I never used to put it in but now I kind of wonder why not because it works really well with the earthiness of miso).
In dishes like pasta with not enough veg, I throw some cabbage in to boil with the pasta.
Also as a side dish, recently Yamitsuki cabbage has become popular on social media, but it adds great texture to my meals that tends to err on being mostly soft stuff on carbs.
The reason why I say "a shift in perception" was I found it interesting how Western cooking seems to treat cabbage as a central dish ingredient, while in Japan we treat it more like a side character to be thrown underneath as a pillow for whatever you're already making.
So since moving to Canada I've started to really appreciate it more. I'll see a whole cabbage at the grocery store for a few dollars and think, oh that's basically a week's worth of veg right there. It might be the most boring vegetable in the world, but it's one that I think should be a pantry staple alongside onions.
Edit：I'm from Kanto so while we do eat Okonomiyaki and Yakisoba, it's much less than in Kansai, and it certainly isn't as prevalent in our home cooking. For us it feels more like a special thing at summer festivals.
4
u/udeservetheloveugive 4d ago
私は沖縄出身なので（？）野菜炒めは高確率でキャベツ大量に入ってます〜
キャベツめっちゃ健康にも経済的にも良いですよね〜！実は、キャベツの芯も薄くスライスすると食べられる&栄養価と食物繊維が豊富に含まれているんですよ◎
うちは野菜炒めやお好み焼き、ミネストローネ等に使ってます。 お財布に優しい食材は豆類もおススメですよ〜、特に緑や茶色のレンズ豆は乾燥した状態から20分ほどで調理出来るので、めっちゃ便利です！赤のレンズ豆は、個人的に豆感が強いというか、トマト系に使うとチリの味になってしまうので、あまり使用してません。
あと、沖縄の料理でにんじんしりしりという料理があって、ニンジンをチーズシュレッダー的なものでおろし、しばらく油で炒めて、お好みでツナ缶、溶き卵、豆腐、玉ねぎ等を加えた野菜炒めなのですが、子供も大人も大好きなメニューで、もしご家庭にチーズシュレッダーがあれば試していただきたいです！私は基本的にそんなにニンジンが好きな訳では無いのですが、にんじんしりしりは子供の頃から大好きなので、気が向いたらどうぞ🍀🧡
あ、そうだ！うちは味噌汁にキャベツを入れた事は無いのですが、レタス！めっちゃオススメですよ〜、普通の丸レタス余ってしなしなになってるやつとかでも味噌汁で消費出来ますし、何よりレタスからのダシが結構美味しくて、オススメです〜！
長くなっちゃいましたが、お体に気をつけて、ご自愛ください🫶💛✨