Greens!!

[Scarlett]

I want to eat more cabbage and spinach but have never actually cooked them!
How can you cook these to make them taste nice?!

[stewey]

Both make simple but tasty side dishes covered with vinegar and pepper. Also, I add caraway seeds to the cabbage along with the vinegar and pepper. STEAM, don't boil, to the texture you like best: not too soggy.

[warpig3]

Mmmmmmmmm cabbage, my favourite, especially savoy. Fry a couple of pork chops in the pan and when done, remove. Pour off excess fat and fry cooked savoy in the juices, delicious.

I also use spinach in salads instead of lettuce. I think with both these its not so much how you cook them (as long as they are not over done) but what you cook them with.

[Koebi]

Hi Scarlett,

Here in Japan cabbage is very popular. Sounds a bit strange but adding cabbage to salad is really nice. Use white cabbage and grate it up really fine then add your other ingredients as usual. You should use a fairly strong tasting dressing or it can be quite bland but it does make salad very filling and satisfying! Another simple idea is to boil shredded cabbage lightly, drain and add a touch of powdered ginger.

[thugulike]

Spinach - gently melt some cream cheese in a pan and add spinach. Stir until nicely merged. Only takes a few minutes and you have cheesy creamed spinach. Add spinach to an egg tortilla, add to sandwiches/wraps. Not a cabbage lover so can't help there.

[WeAreBongo]

Every single person in the world simply adores curry, so why not make a nice chicken sagwala using plenty of spinach? And as for cabbage, try uber-nutricious cabbage soup. Or add it to a doner kebab for that special occasion. Next!

[gina32]

curry? yuk

[ethandron]

cabbage in cheese sauce is really tasty. par boil your cabbage for about 5 minutes then put in a shallow baking dish. make cheese sauce (either packet or the real thing) and pour over the cabbage. grate some nutmeg on top and pop in the oven for about 15 minutes.
also homemade coleslaw. finely slice/shred half a white cabbage. grate 2 or 3 carrots and half an onion. mix together in a big bowl then add enough mayo to coat it all. much nicer and better for you than the bought stuff.

[funnygirl]

I stir fry a mixture of cabbages and spinach with garlic, onions and red peppers.
Just fry lightly, seasoning with a touch of chilli pepper along with salt and black pepper.

[mrs_overall]

Try it stir fried with chopped up pieces of smokey bacon. I also add a good glug of balsamic vinegar to mine.

[Angiepandy]

You don't always need to cook spinach! You can buy bags of baby spinach, washed and prepared in most supermarket chains which taste good raw in salads, straight out of the bag - they're not bitter like some green salad leaves. Add whatever you want to them or nothing at all; cheese, croutons, tomatoes, cucumber, peppers, olives anything, then eat with or without a salad dressing poured over the top. Yum :)

Cooked cabbage can be shredded and steamed and mixed into mashed potatoes or you can even fry them with a bit of chopped garlic or bacon thrown in.

[shivvy]

I agree with angiepandy - I can eat handfuls of spinach raw and in salads.
A bit of a cheat recipe that I make is spinach (with a tin of soup) in cheese. It goes something like -
Put the spinach (1 packet) in a colander or sieve and pour boiling water over it (this will wilt it)
Chop 1 small onion and saute it in 1 tbsp of butter until soft.
Stir in 1 tbsp flour.
Add 1/2 teasp worcesterchire sauce, 1 tin of campbells condensed mushroom soup, the wilted spinach and 1 cup of cheese (or as much as you prefer)
Mix well and pour into a buttered casserole dish.
Bake @ 170 for 30 mins or in the microwave for 4 minutes.

[BBWCHATT]

Scarlett - I don't like it at all myself, but both of my sisters LOVE making this soup - and they say it is better the second or third day in the fridge:


Crumble & fry hamburger meat (minced beef) in a large soup pot. Drain off any grease that comes out of it.
Put in 1 chopped onion, 1 very roughly cut cabbage, 1 can of diced tomatoes, 1 can of dark red kidney beans and enough water to make it into soup. Salt & pepper to taste.
Cook until the cabbage and onions are tender.


BBWCHATT
The old lady in Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA