Controversy-Free Veggies: Lazy Sweet and Sour Cabbage

Last week’s restaurant…er…situation has made me a wee bit gun-shy when it comes to broaching any topic that could be deemed controversial in the blog world. And let me tell you, the blog world seems to have an insanely low tolerance for controversy. So while I can promise that nothing will deter me from opening my big mouth laptop, today we’re going to talk cabbage and hope no one will take offense. The worst thing you can say about cabbage is that you don’t like it. Or you only like it when the crispy leaves are shredded and doused in vegan mayo.

I hear ya.

Though I like cabbage, it’s one of those veggies that’s not only hard to eat a lot of, I often find myself stumped with what to do with it, especially when I’m stubbornly committed to eating raw.

For some reason, cabbage has been a frequent weekly visitor in my produce delivery box from Washington’s Green Grocer. Every single week I find the cabbage heads piling up in the back of my tiny fridge, staring at me with their oversized outer leaves, wondering if I’m ever going to get off my lazy a$$ and put them to good use.

This week, partially because I was feeling antsy from the restaurant fallout and because I’m stressed due to an impending move, I hated on a head of red cabbage, so much so I wanted to throw it away, desperately hoping it would eventually rot and I could justify its swift departure to the trash can. No such luck.

That thing wouldn’t die.

Unfortunately I literally couldn’t stomach another salad of raw cabbage, no matter how many ways I massaged it or doused it in Nama Shoyu. So I did what any self-respecting semi-raw vegan would do, I cooked the heck out of those once crispy leaves. A quick search of the interwebs taught me a little bit about sweet and sour cabbage — a dish which can take an hour to cook – and showed me many different recipes.. Since I’m lazy and really wanted to get rid of the cabbage as quickly as possible, I improvised. If you have an evil cabbage head staring at you, here’s what you can do.

Lazy Sweet and Sour Cabbage

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 clove garlic, minced finely
• 1 head red cabbage, shredded finely
• 1 tsp sea salt
• ¼ cup orange juice, preferably fresh
• ¼ cup balsamic vinegar
• 3 T agave, more if you like things sweet

1. Heat a skillet or pan over medium-high heat, add olive oil and garlic. Cook garlic for 1-2 minutes, careful not to let it burn, just until it’s soft. Add the cabbage and stir to combine with garlic and oil.

2. Add orange juice, vinegar and agave. Stir to combine. Turn heat to medium-low, cover and simmer for about 10 minutes (may be a little less depending on your cabbage), just until the leaves are soft and wilted. If you have a lot of liquid in there, you can turn up the heat. You want the liquid to evaporate.

3. Turn off heat, serve, and try not to eat in one sitting, unless you really can’t stand the sight of the cabbage one minute longer and/or you find this particularly satisfying and delicious, which it totally is.

And you know something? I don’t care if this is an unpopular opinion, but sometimes cooking the heck out of a veggie feels pretty darn great.

Bring it on, cabbage.