Cabbages

Spiral Cabbage fabric by Helen Klebesadel on Spoonflower. Check out her spectacular botanical paintings here.

Aiming to eat seasonally where possible is all well and good, but if you live in England it can be a bit dull for some of the year. Our veg boxes to date have very often included cabbages. Its not that I don't like cabbage...but I'm not sure I really like it. I guess I have eaten so little of it I'm not really sure of what to do with it. But I've had to try harder in recent weeks, and we now have two favourite cabbage-inclusive meals added to our repertoire.
The first is like a winter coleslaw-type salad. Just shred cabbage, carrots, celery and apple. You can include most anything you like, but those basics are good. Then top with smoked mackerel, torn into chunks. The dressing is some creme fraiche and lemon juice with a good dollop of horseradish, but you can't add it until the last minute as the salad just drinks it up. I make twice as much as I think I'll need, and we always use it up. This isn't a very kid-friendly salad (except for the mackerel, which our kid likes), but it is yummy and light and at least makes a stab at looking forward to spring.
The second is Jamie Oliver's Italian Bread and Cabbage Soup with Sage Butter. Really, the name says it all, except it is only just a soup. I have made it with too-fresh shop bread, and its ok, but it really shines with stale, crusty, ciabatta-style bread, which in this house means planning an extra loaf earlier in the week (I can't get fontina cheese at my local supermarket, so I used gouda and it was fine). But it is worth it, and the left-overs are even more delicious so make heaps. And its kid-accessible.
So for those heading into more wintery months, I would highly recommend both meals (although I can understand that the mackerel salad might be an acquired taste). And it looks like, on this side of the planet, that the cabbage experiments are giving way to asparagus adventures...how I love an early spring!