{"id":88988,"date":"2026-03-03T12:14:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T19:14:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/?p=88988"},"modified":"2026-03-03T12:14:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T19:14:19","slug":"cabbage-recipes-history-cooking-tips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/cabbage-recipes-history-cooking-tips\/","title":{"rendered":"Cabbage goes from St. Patrick’s Day staple to year-round star with these cabbage recipes. Venture far beyond boiled cabbage."},"content":{"rendered":"
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A red cabbage salad with tart apples and toasted walnuts is delicious any time of year. Cabbage is popular for St. Patrick’s Day, but this ancient vegetable is a versatile, healthy addition to many recipes. Photo: Getty Images.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The thick, hardy, water-storing leaves of cabbage are a function of where the plant originated, along the shores of the Mediterranean Sea some 4,000 years ago. The sun-drenched air is salty and makes for difficult growing conditions for any plant. Developing its structure was cabbage\u2019s way to survive and thrive in such a climate and environment.<\/p>\n

How humans first started eating cabbage. Learn the history of this hardy, ancient vegetable.\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Cabbage was headless at first, resembling what we know as collard greens. During the first century B.C.E., growers of the vegetable selected for one of the cabbage plant\u2019s buds and the hard, smooth, green-white, sometimes red \u201chead\u201d that we know as cabbage was born.<\/p>\n

This sort of cabbage ruled the Middle Ages in Northern Europe. Its legacy, in Britain and Ireland, is celebrated today, there and very much in North America, in its annual appearance at the table on St. Patrick\u2019s Day in dishes such as corned beef (or simple beef) and cabbage, or in colcannon \u2014 Irish mashed potatoes and cabbage \u2014 one of the recipes here.<\/p>\n

Varieties of cabbage gain popularity from Chinese cabbages to mini cabbages or Brussels sprouts<\/strong><\/h2>\n

But headed cabbage is only one of several sorts of cabbage that figure in cooking. Chinese cabbages, so-called because European cabbage emigrated to the East along the Great Silk Road, are pointed and looser leafed. Bok choy is a good example.<\/p>\n

A third sort of cabbage was bred by the Belgians around the year 500 A.D. as Brussels sprouts. These \u201cpetits choux,\u201d <\/em>to use the French term meaning \u201clittle cabbages,\u201d are just buds along the thick, fibrous stem of the cabbage.<\/p>\n

A fourth variety of cabbage resembles the OG Mediterranean cabbage and is kale and collards, the most commonly eaten vegetable in Britain for more than 1,000 years.<\/p>\n

And, finally, a fifth family are \u201cflowering\u201d cabbages such as cauliflower and broccoli. (What we call the \u201ccrown\u201d of these vegetables \u2014 \u201cbroccoli crowns,\u201d for example \u2014 is actually the cabbage\u2019s flower.)<\/p>\n

Fun facts about cabbage<\/strong><\/h2>\n