Growing cabbage always presents challenges. In my short growing season, each plant produces one head but doesn’t really have enough time to form a second flush. It has a big garden footprint, and I have to protect it under a cover all season if I want to keep cabbageworms and loopers from calling it home. Some varieties need to be harvested midsummer, when everything else is begging for attention in the garden, so I need to check carefully for number of growing days to ensure a long, extended harvest.

Is it worth it? Clearly I’ve answered yes, because as I share in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon, I now grow several cabbage varieties. Some I enjoy fresh, especially as young, raw leafy greens. Others I ferment to have on hand all winter. But my favorites remain the raw crunchy heads that I shred for salads.

Learn more about my favorite cabbage varieties and get the complete recipe for Crunchy Cabbage Salad in my column.

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Twice as Tasty

Cabbage salad can be easily altered to use the vegetables you have on hand. If I harvest the cabbage early, I often toss in the last of my spring peas and first of my fresh chilies; at the end of the season, I may add shredded zucchini or apple. For a full meal, I serve it with Wasabi-Marinated Shrimp, setting aside some of the marinade as a dressing.

In my column, I included a ginger–lime dressing in the recipe for Crunchy Cabbage Salad that plays well with the nut, seed, and fresh cilantro garnish. A thick, creamy dressing can be just as tasty. The choice is yours, especially if you make your own dressing and add just enough to flavor the salad without losing the crunch.

Earlier this summer, I gave my favorite reasons, techniques, and flavors for DIY dressings in an article for Clean Plates. Among the ideas I list there, honey–mustard and citrus–cilantro are two great combinations for this salad. Here are a few other dressing ideas on the blog. You can find more in the recipe index.

• Asian-Inspired Dressing (from my Tomato-Cucumber Salad recipe in the Flathead Beacon)
• Chive Blossom Vinaigrette
• Spiced Lemon Dressing (also delicious on Couscous Salad with Raw Vegetables)
• Taco Salad Dressing
• Cumin–Lime Vinaigrette (also delicious on Watermelon–Feta Salad)
• Russian Salad Dressing
• Vegan Green Goddess Dressing

I personally expanded my other main cabbage use—fermenting—when I wrote my pickling cookbook. It features several cabbage recipes, including two techniques for curtido, my favorite cabbage pickle; several German- and Russian-inspired sauerkraut variations; and numerous spins on kimchi. You can get a sample pickled-cabbage recipe from my book in this blog post.

Want more Twice as Tasty recipes? Get my books! Click here to order a personally signed, packaged, and shipped copy of The Complete Guide to Pickling directly from me. I also share tasty ways to use pickles in The Pickled Picnic; it’s only available here.