Napa cabbage is in season in Indiana in early-mid summer. This Asian variety is looser-leaved than American cabbage varieties, which gives it a more delicate, fringy texture that adds some fanciness to your meals. As an Asian cabbage, it tastes amazing in most stir fry recipes, but it can also stand in for a head of green cabbage in any coleslaw recipe.
Green and red heads of cabbage are also in season in early-mid summer. Most of the prep tips below can apply to all kinds of cabbage.
Storage
Napa cabbage will store in your fridge for at least a week, preferably in the crisper drawer. The leaves are so delicate that it will begin to lose its crunch within a few days, so if you’d like to eat it raw while it’s nice and crisp, don’t wait too long.
Tighter head cabbages (the round kind you see at the grocery store) can last much longer in the fridge. These can last at least a few weeks, and you can just pull off leaves as needed OR slice off sections, cover the cut side with plastic wrap, and keep coming back till it’s gone.
As with most produce, don’t wash it until you’re ready to use it. With a few exceptions, any moisture directly on your produce will speed up spoiling. But if you’re using the cut-and-come-again method with round cabbage, it’s OK to wash it the first time you use it and then store it. Just let it drain well and pat down with a paper towel before storing the rest of the cut head in the fridge.
Basic Prep Ideas
Raw cabbage
Napa cabbage makes a great slaw (see Gabby’s recipe!). The large, flexible leaves also work beautifully as a replacement for tortillas in wraps and tacos! Just make sure you don’t overfill them, because when the leaves are nice and crisp, they will break easily. This is a situation where you can totally do four small tacos instead of two large ones! It just means more delicious, nutritious cabbage.
You can also use leaves from the round kind of head cabbage as taco wrappers, but they are thicker and less flexible and will be more likely to break. Usually, the only way I use round cabbage raw is in coleslaw. To get nice pretty, thin shreds of round cabbage heads, cut off the end opposite the stem, and then proceed to make very thin slices with a large chef’s knife. You’ll be cutting a cross-section of the cabbage this way. Cut the slices in half or in quarters, and you’ll find that the cabbage naturally shreds itself! Gabby’s slaw recipe works well with all kinds of cabbage.
Cooked cabbage
Napa cabbage takes almost no time to cook. In stir fries, don’t add it to the skillet until the very last 2-3 minutes of cooking time. You can also coarsely chop it and add it to vegetable soups. When it comes to soup, don’t even bother cooking the cabbage. Just stir it into the soup as soon as you remove it from the heat, and let the residual heat of the broth gently cook it before you dive in.
Round head cabbage takes a little longer to cook. I like it in stir fries and soups just like Napa cabbage, but I give it just a few minutes longer – and I do add this variety in during the last few minutes of soup cooking time instead of stirring it in later. Except in this one case: I really enjoy lining my soup bowl with broken up pieces of raw cabbage leaves. When I pour in the soup, the cabbage is gently cooked but still retains a bit of crunch. It’s a fun way to eat it!
I don’t cook cabbage very often, so I recommend checking out EatFresh.org, which has TONS of cabbage recipes. Enjoy experimenting!