How much Shredded Cabbage is in a Head? (2024)

Cabbage is a plant made of densely packed leaves that grow in the form of a tightly wound ball, called a head. While cabbage may look like lettuce, it most certainly is not!

Cabbage is a member of the mustard family Brassicas, which includes other vegetables such as Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli and many others. You may even hear them called 'cole crops.'

The popularity of cabbage goes back hundreds of years and was domesticated on the European continent sometime prior to 1000 BC and became a prominent part of European culture. To this day, the popularity of cabbage is found in cuisines throughout the world.

There are several cultivar groups of cabbage.The most common cabbage types that you will find at the grocery store are green and red cabbage.

Green cabbage is the most commonly used cabbage used for sliced and steamed cabbage. Red cabbage has red leaves and is often used in stews, pickling, or added as a punch of color with green cabbage in coleslaw.

There are other lesser known types of cabbage such as savoy, white (also known as Dutch cabbage) and spring greens, which is a loose-headed cabbage.

The common green cabbage is a light green cabbage when available in grocery stores. If you are lucky enough to visit a farm or grow cabbage yourself, you will find that the outer leaves of green cabbage are a much darker green. These leaves are usually removed in order to get down to the tighter compact ball of leaves.

Raw green cabbage has a slight peppery flavor when eaten and, once cooked, will mellow out.

Red cabbage is similar to green cabbage in the ball shape, however it is quite easy to distinguish as it is deep reddish-purple in color.

Red cabbage tastes similar to green cabbage with its slightly peppery flavor. Once cooked, the peppery flavor will mellow out.

Cabbage is an amazing vegetable! It can be eaten raw, cooked, fermented, pickled, sauteed, steamed, stewed, or stuffed.

Perhaps cabbage is most known for coleslaw, a salad that is predominantly chopped cabbage and mayonnaise based. Fermented cabbage is known as sauerkraut.

Cabbage is also a good source of vitamins, minerals and fiber.

Cabbage is an excellent storage vegetable. When properly stored, it can last 3 weeks and even up to 2 months in the refrigerator.

If you are one of the lucky few with a root cellar, freshly harvested cabbage can last all throughout the winter until the next season. Although you will definitely want to remove some of the outer rotting leaves before you consume.

If you keep your environment below 70 degrees Fahrenheit, uncooked cabbage will keep fresh for about two hours.

It is best to keep cabbage stored in a refrigerator or a root cellar at a lower temperature.

Since cabbage is a large vegetable, many people will quarter cabbage and store the quarters separately in plastic storage bags before placing in the refrigerator's crisper.

If you are planning to use cabbage in a stuffed cabbage recipe, it is best to cut the head in half and then store each half in its own bag.

An unwashed whole cabbage will keep up to 3 weeks in the refrigerator's crisper section. If cut, loose-leaf cabbage will last up to a week.

Yes! Cabbage can be frozen and doing so is quite easy! If freezer storage is ample, by all means store it whole, although expect it to take several days to fully freeze.

Cabbage can be frozen freshly-cut so it is the closest possible thing to raw cabbage. This works great when you have too much cabbage and plan to use it in the next week or month.

However, the best way to extend the freezer life of cabbage is to blanch cabbage wedges by submerging them in boiling waters for 2 minutes. Remove them from the boiling water, and plunge them into a bowl of cold water.

At this point it is important to drain the cabbage of excess liquid and then freeze them on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper in the freezer. Once frozen, remove the cabbage from the baking sheet and place them in a freezer bag.

Cabbage is a versatile vegetable! It can be cut in shreds, leaves, quartered, sliced, or in wedges. All it takes is a good vegetable knife that is long enough to cut through the circumference of the cabbage head.

Depending on where you purchase your cabbage or even if you harvest it yourself, worms or other insects could be lurking inside the cabbage leaves. This is why it is so important to make sure that your cabbage is thoroughly cleaned before consuming.

One way to clean cabbage is to cut it in shreds, quartered or in wedges and then place in a colander with running water over it. Shake them dry and pat with a clean cotton dish towel.

An even easier way to clean cabbage is to cut it up and place it in a salad spinner after soaking the cabbage in water and spinning away any moist residue.

A head of cabbage can be sliced like any other vegetable. Keep in mind that since cabbage has many tightly compacted leaves, slices will not always stay intact.

A long vegetable knife, cabbage slicer, or a mandoline slicer is the best way to slice cabbage.

Dicing cabbage is as simple as chopping cabbage. The difference is that when dicing cabbage you are looking for a more uniform and smaller shape.

It is not recommended to mash cabbage. Oftentimes people will get around it by adding cooked cabbage to cooked potatoes, but honestly, the potato is a star in that dish.

However, good news! Pureeing cabbage IS possible. All it takes is adding cooked cabbage with a little liquid to a blender or food processor that has a puree function.

If you are lucky enough to have a food processor with a grater function, it will make quick work of shredding cabbage!

Another handy kitchen tool is a mandoline slicer. Most come with a several slicing blades for various thicknesses. In addition, it is quick to do!

Otherwise, shredding cabbage by hand takes a long knife and a steady hand. Thinly slice and the cabbage will virtually shred itself.