Cabbage, the bane of school dinners, is now on the cool list
FOR older generations it may conjure ghastly memories of school dinners, but thanks to the “clean eating” craze sweeping the UK, cabbage is now cool.
Britain’s restaurant chains are now including pickled cabbage dishes such as sauerkraut and kimchi on menus in an attempt to keep up with the craze.
Slug and Lettuce, Byron and Greene King pubs have cottoned on to the trend and are selling burgers which feature kimchi, while Loch Fyne, the seafood restaurant, is offering a confit duck leg with the Korean speciality on the side. Supermarkets are also selling more cabbage, with Sainsbury’s saying sales are up by 39 per cent since Christ- mas. Sales of cider vinegar, commonly used for pickling cabbage, are up by 17 per cent compared to last year.
The retailer has also started selling jars of pickling spice to enhance the flavour of homemade fermented cabbage or other vegetables.
Melissa Hemsley, the celebrity health food guru who has helped pioneer virtuous trends such as courgetti and posh pot noodles, told The Daily Telegraph that pickled cabbage was the “next big thing” in clean eating.
She said: “The health benefits of fermented cabbage are absolutely amazing. Any trend that gets people eating more vegetables has to be a good thing.”
Richard Mobury of the British Brassica Association said: “Like kale, cabbage is very good for you. It is high in vitamin C, vitamin K and [has] anticarcinogenic properties.”