The ultimate unsung superfood: 17 delicious ways with cabbage – from kimchi to pasta to peanut butter noodles
Over the last 50 years, cabbage consumption in Britain has declined 80%,But it’s versatile, full of vitamins, and perfect on a winter night,Here’s how to make the most of itIt’s not good news: despite a lot of messaging about healthy eating, Britons consume 12% less vegetables per week than they did in 1974, when the government’s Family Food survey began,And while the consumption of some specific vegetables – courgettes, say – has risen over the past 50 years, others have experienced a sharp decline,Among the biggest losers is cabbage.
Cabbage consumption in the UK dropped by 80%, beaten only by brussels sprouts (87%) which are, after all, a kind of cabbage.This is a tragedy, not just because cabbage is an unsung superfood containing essential vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, as well as protein and dietary fibre, but because it’s a flexible, abundant and potentially delicious culinary ingredient.It even comes in different colours.Cabbage can sometimes seem uninspiring – especially at this time of year, when there’s a lot of it about – but it doesn’t have to be that way.Here are 17 delicious uses for cabbage, guaranteed to get you eating more of it.
Guardian writer Meera Sodha is passionate – if not downright evangelical – about the versatility of cabbage.Her white cabbage, peanut butter and gochujang noodles is a good place to begin: a recipe so simple it’s targeted at students, takes about 30 minutes to make, requires no particular skill, and nothing – beyond perhaps gochujang, a Korean red chili paste – you won’t likely find in your cupboard.It’s worth remembering that you don’t have to cook cabbage at all – finely shredded, it’s great raw in a straightforward coleslaw or in a spicier Jaipur slaw – Sodha again, this time from her cookbook Made in India – with carrot, red onion and mooli (daikon radish).When I can’t find mooli, I have substituted kohlrabi to no disadvantage, even though they’re not really the same thing at all.I’m guessing celeriac would also serve.
For Nigel Slater’s just-warm bean and cabbage salad the cabbage is blanched in boiling water for no more than a minute – that doesn’t really count as cooking.Ironically, one of the problems with cabbage is how much you get for your money – it’s difficult to expend more than half a head on a single evening meal, and you invariably end with some left over.Okonomiyaki – Japanese cabbage pancakes – are an easy way to use up the other half of a white cabbage, with a simple sauce made from soy, honey and ketchup.Rachel Roddy’s cabbage and sausage cake uses the outer leaves to create a sealed parcel of cabbage and sausage meat.Cabbage soup has a reputation as a hideous privation, but the reputation is undeserved – cabbage soup can be great.
Yotam Ottolenghi’s cabbage and pot barley soup with whipped feta may be good for you, but it’s no kind of privation, while José Pizarro’s smoky cabbage and white bean soup, with cured chorizo and two kinds of paprika, sounds downright indulgent.Felicity Cloake likes braised red cabbage at Christmas, and it makes a welcome addition to the day’s feast, if only because it has a long cooking time, which mostly requires nothing of you.Keralan cabbage thoran, on the other hand, cooks in under 10 minutes.Slater’s cabbage with mussels is a handy midweek dinner for two to have in your repertoire, especially as it makes use of dark green cabbage leaves.One of the trendiest things you can do to a cabbage is burn it.
We may have been over-served with recipes featuring charred quarter-wedges of hispi cabbage (the pointy kind), but the idea is still a welcome one – scorch your hispi wedges under a grill, on a barbecue or in a ridged pan, then dress as desired, perhaps with dried miso and ponzu, or with herb yoghurt and shallots, or as part of Thomasina Miers’ cabbage Caesar salad.The other trendy thing you can do with cabbage is make kimchi out of it.Cloake’s masterclass version will put you on the right track, but if you haven’t got the patience for long-term fermentation, these quick pickled cabbage wedges from Alex Elliott-Howery will be ready to eat in as little as three days.Finally, a pasta recipe: Jamie Oliver’s savoy cabbage and pancetta farfalle.It’s not only delicious but kills two birds with one stone: a surfeit of cabbage, and that box of bow-tie pasta you may not otherwise ever get round to using.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX ‘aiming for $1.5tn valuation’ in stock market flotation – business live
Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy.Elon Musk’s SpaceX is aiming to hold one of the biggest stock market listings of all time next year, according to reports.SpaceX, which designs and manufactures rockets and spacecraft and is pioneering the idea of reusable rockets, is aiming for a valuation over $1trn by selling shares to investors in 2026, Bloomberg and Reuters are both reporting.Bloomberg says SpaceX is seeking to raise significantly more than $30bn, and targeting a valuation of about $1.5tn for the whole company
Rachel Reeves’s test from the bond markets starts now
Good news for Rachel Reeves: the cost of government borrowing has fallen a bit relative to the US and eurozone countries. Better news: the chancellor may have something to do with it. Better still: some economists think there’s more to come.Let’s not get carried away, though. The UK is still paying a painful premium on its borrowing costs, as the Institute for Public Policy Research thinktank illustrates
From ‘glacier aesthetic’ to ‘poetcore’: Pinterest predicts the visual trends of 2026 based on its search data
Next year, we’ll mostly be indulging in maximalist circus decor, working on our poetcore, hunting for the ethereal or eating cabbage in a bid for “individuality and self-preservation”, according to Pinterest.The organisation’s predictions for Australian trends in 2026 have landed, which – according to the platform used by interior decorators, fashion lovers and creatives of all stripes – includes 1980s, aliens, vampires and “forest magic”.Among the Pinterest 2026 trends report’s top 21 themes are “Afrohemian” decor (searches for the term are on the rise by baby boomers and Gen X); “glitchy glam” (asymmetric haircuts and mismatching nails); and “cool blue” (drinks, wedding dresses and makeup with a “glacier aesthetic”).Pinterest compared English-language search data from September 2024 to August 2025 with those of the year before and claims it has an 88% accuracy rate. More than 9 million Australians use Pinterest each month
UK police forces lobbied to use biased facial recognition technology
Police forces successfully lobbied to use a facial recognition system known to be biased against women, young people, and members of ethnic minority groups, after complaining that another version produced fewer potential suspects.UK forces use the police national database (PND) to conduct retrospective facial recognition searches, whereby a “probe image” of a suspect is compared to a database of more than 19 million custody photos for potential matches.The Home Office admitted last week that the technology was biased, after a review by the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) found it misidentified Black and Asian people and women at significantly higher rates than white men, and said it “had acted on the findings”.Documents seen by the Guardian and Liberty Investigates reveal that the bias has been known about for more than a year – and that police forces argued to overturn an initial decision designed to address it.Police bosses were told the system was biased in September 2024, after a Home Office-commissioned review by the NPL found the system was more likely to suggest incorrect matches for probe images depicting women, Black people, and those aged 40 and under
‘Having a Bazball at Noosa’: Australian media goes to town over England’s mid-Ashes beach break
A mid-tour jaunt by the England cricket team to a Queensland beach town was covered gleefully by Australia’s tabloid newspapers, which splashed a shirtless Ben Stokes across their pages amid taunting headlines.“On back foot, England bails to the beach”, one read. “Life’s a beach, even for the sinking Poms,” added another. “Sun’s out, runs out”, offered a third, alongside a photo of Stokes’s tattooed biceps.“Having a Bazball at Noosa!”, the top of the front page of Brisbane’s Courier Mail declared, alongside coverage of Jamie Oliver’s best Christmas ham recipe and Australia’s controversial ban of under-16s from social media which comes into force on Wednesday
Pat Cummins primed for return as Australia name squad for third Ashes Test
Australian veteran Usman Khawaja remains in the frame for selection for the third Ashes Test after being included in the squad for Adelaide headlined by the return of captain Pat Cummins.Khawaja was left out of the second Test XI after struggling with a back injury during the series opener in Perth, and new opener Jake Weatherald broke through with his first half century at the Gabba.The end of the 38-year-old’s international career will have to wait however, after he was named in Australia’s 15-player squad for the third Test beginning 17 December.Travis Head has starred alongside Weatherald at the top of the order making Khawaja’s return as an opener unlikely, although his versatility could still win him a place batting down the order.Beneath Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith at Nos 3 and 4 there remains uncertainty around the makeup of Australia’s lineup, as they travel to Adelaide looking to wrap up the series
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