Cabbage is a scary vegetable but it need not be. The trick is not to overcook it and turn it into a big pile of mush. Preserve the goodness, texture and true flavor by cooking it as lightly as possible, if at all.

Why bother ?

It’s very good for you and has a whole host of vitamins and minerals in it.

Its loaded with vitamin K and C and is an excellent source of dietary fiber.

It contains vitamin B6 and folate, and even omega 3 fatty acids!

It has modest amounts of calcium and potassium making it great for vegetarians.

It also has modest amounts of vitamin A and is incredibly low in calories making it an all round hit.

If you don’t like traditional cabbage you might like a few of the others. My family will only eat the red cabbage in salad and the Chinese cabbages in Asian food – but it’s a start!

Below are some of the cabbages and their uses:

Traditional made best: Chop and steam the cabbage. Add a little a salt, black pepper and a little margarine and serve as a vegetable side dish to a meal. Don’t over cook it, it just be just done, otherwise you will scare your kids for life about cabbage. Test it after just 10 minutes of steaming, this is usually enough time too only just cook it.

Stir fry – add cabbage as an ingredient in a stir fry – it will stay nice and crunchy and give the stir fry a beautiful color. White cabbage (actually is light green) sliced finely, is perfect for this.

Red cabbage – slice the cabbage into quarters, then slice each quarter as thinly as possible and toss it over the top of a salad, it gives a beautiful finishing touch to a salad, and in this form, people who don’t typically like cabbage are more likely to enjoy it as it has a completely different taste and texture.

Boc choy is a type of cabbage that is added to typically Thai food, it’s a lot milder and does not need to be boiled in advance. You can get baby boc choy cabbages that are fragrant and very different to a typically savoy cabbage. Add baby boc choy to a Thai curry.

There are a whole load of other Chinese type cabbages that are great in curries and stir fries, take a trip to your local Asian store and try a few out.