This is how to cut a cabbage head for cooking, salads, sauces, or storing. It’s one of our complete step-by-step guides with pics. So, read on to see details of how to quickly and easily cut or shred cabbage for soup, stir-fry, or coleslaw, even with just a knife.
How To Cut A Cabbage – The 1st Way
You’ll need to know how to cut a cabbage in different ways for different recipes. You might need to cut it into slices, chunks, diced, or shredded. Also, you might cut cabbage for a hot cooking recipe, like stir fry or something cold, like coleslaw. In summary, here are the 4 steps of how to cut a cabbage, followed by their details.
- Clean the cabbage.
- Then, carve to remove the cabbage core.
- Next, cut the cabbage into main sections.
- Finally, finish cutting to fit the recipe.
Clean the cabbage and place onto a cutting surface.
1. How To Clean A Cabbage And Prepare It
This is how to clean a cabbage. I start by washing my hands. Then, I always pull off and discard the initial outer cabbage head leaves. After that, I’ll rinse off the outer part of the cabbage head and shake it to get rid of the excess water. Also, if I see any mold spots or mild blemishes, I’ll cut them off with plenty of the good cabbage around the removal area.
Fortunately, cabbage is far better sealed on the inside compared to lettuce. So, mainly just the outside needs to be rinsed off after removing and discarding those outer leaves.
2. Carve To Remove The Cabbage Core
Clean the cabbage and place it on the cutting board. Position the core head on top. Then, carve nearly ½ of the head away, avoiding the core area while cutting down.
Core head on top. Cut away each half downard.
Repeat this on the other ½. Then, all that remains is the center “sliced” section that includes the core.
3. Cut The Cabbage Into The Main Sections
Next, cut 2 good side sections away from the central core. Since the core doesn’t go all the way down, you can also cut at least the bottom half of the central core and discard the top half. You now have the 2 halves, 2 good sections, and the bottom half of the center remaining.
Cut away 2 good sections from core center. All that remains is the central core piece. Cut core to keep just the bottom central core half.
4. Finish The Cabbage Cutting For The Recipe
From this point forward, your recipe will tell you what size cabbage pieces to use. For example, a cabbage soup recipe might mention medium to small-sized cabbage chunks. A coleslaw recipe might reference shredded or diced cabbage. A skillet fried cabbage recipe might require large 1 to 2-inch sized pieces.
Cutting half cabbage for a recipe
How To Cut A Cabbage – The 2nd Way: Immediate Slices
This is the second way of how to cut a cabbage. This is an easier way in a sense. It relies on the cabbage core to be short, which they typically are. Basically, after reviewing the above steps for cleaning, proceed by carving off thick or thin slices of cabbage, as deemed necessary for your recipe. Then, with the cabbage slices, cut them further down into sections, chunks, or diced.
2nd Way: Cutting away large slices or large bottom section of cabbage for immediate use
How To Cut A Cabbage – The 3rd Way: Immediate Shredding
This is the third way of how to cut a cabbage and it involves shredding. After cleaning and prepping the cabbage head, as mentioned in the earlier section, proceed as follows. This way is not feasible with a large cabbage head. So, with a smaller head of cabbage, pick it up holding it around its core sideways. Begin shredding the cabbage on the opposite end of the core. If the cabbage head is too large or heavy for this, just use the 1st or 2nd way, as shown above.
3rd Way: Immediate Shredding at Bottom of Cabbage Head (after cleaning cabbage)
How To Cut A Cabbage To Cook
When cutting a cabbage for cooking, you might need it often for larger sizes. Some of these sizes might be as slices, chunks, or large leaves. The sizes needed are determined by the recipe requirements.
How To Cut A Cabbage for Stir Fry
You can cut a cabbage for stir fry by carving it into small or medium-sized pieces. They might be about ½-inch square. However, some stir-fry recipes might call it to be cut in narrow short strips. Here’s a stir-fry pork recipe that calls for it to be chopped cabbage, which are small pieces.
How To Cut A Cabbage for Soup
Cutting cabbage for cabbage soup is easy. You just need to cut it into pieces about ½-inch size. Here’s an example of a cabbage soup recipe that uses this size and shows pics representing that.
How To Cut A Cabbage For Salad or Sauce
When cutting a cabbage for cold dishes like salads or sauces, you might need it often for smaller sizes. Some of these sizes might be as smaller chunks, diced/chopped, or shredded. So, a classic example is for coleslaw or tartar sauce.
Sometimes, a recipe might call for it in small chunks, like for pickling. In those cases, you can carve the cabbage head into thick slices about ½-inch thick. Then, lay a slice down flat on the cutting board. Finish by cutting slices one way about ½-inch wide, turn the board 90 degrees and repeat the slicing so you end up with a bunch of ½-inch cubes. You don’t need to worry if they fall apart a bit; that’s their nature.
How To Cut A Cabbage for Coleslaw
For coleslaw, cut the cabbage by shredding it coarse or fine. Generally, your coleslaw recipe will tell you which style cut to use. However, if it doesn’t, use a coarse shred cut. The tower shaped handheld shredder will have both a course and fine cutting side to use for each. However, some cole slaw recipes will call for it to be diced small or medium-sized. Unless you have a vegetable cutter for dicing, the diced cuts will need to be done with a knife.
Coarse side of handheld tower shredder for typical coleslaw
Fine side of handheld tower shredder for fine coleslaw
How To Cut A Cabbage For Tartar Sauce
When cutting cabbage for tartar sauce, you can make it coarse or fine. Morrison’s Cafeterias used to make it coarse, so it was an excellent filler. So, here’s a homemade tartar sauce recipe that uses coarsely cut cabbage.
Coarsely chopped Cabbage cut for Tartar Sauce
How To Shred Cabbage With A Knife
You can actually shred cabbage with a knife. You don’t need to use a shredder. There are two ways to shred cabbage with a knife. Both start by taking a section of the cabbage.
One way is to take any section or half head of cabbage. Place the large piece down flat with any part of its cut surface fully down on the cutting board. Generally, cut reasonably thin slices. After that, turn the cut slices 90 degrees and cut them into very short lengths.
The second way is with a half head of cabbage. In this example, with one hand, hold the cabbage on its uncut side. Then, with the cutting hand, place the knife blade against the center of the cabbage. Cut thin slices, cutting slightly inward and down towards the cutting board. Repeat this a little more. Then, rotate the cabbage, and repeat. Finally, you can continue rotating the cabbage and cutting thin slices each time. Eventually, you’ll need to put it on the board instead of on its side to finish it out by just completing with thin cuts like the first way.
Can You Cut Cabbage Ahead Of Time?
Yes, you can cut cabbage ahead of time. With cut cabbage, just be sure it’s lightly covered and in the fridge until ready for use within about 1 to 3 days. Also, here’s another great article on “How To Cut Cabbage and Prepare It For Meals“. It also covers storage ideas when getting ready for recipes ahead of time.
How To Store Cabbage
You can store a whole cabbage head in the fridge unwrapped. If it’s cut cabbage, however, you’ll want to store it loosely in a food storage bag. The idea is to not tightly seal it, but don’t leave it open and unprotected. When ready to use uncut cabbage, just remove the outer leaves if you see any visible blemishes or mold spots. Once you discover noticeable soft mushy areas, it’s safest to discard the cabbage completely.
Cabbage Benefits
There are a lot of benefits in using cabbage, for health and the food budget. So, it’s one of the lower cost vegetables. Regarding health benefits, Cindy Moustafa, a nutritionist & fitness expert, explains many of them in her article “10 Reasons Why Cabbage Is Good For You“. For example, cabbage is only about 22 calories per cup and it’s a great filler in recipes. Another is that it’s full of vitamin C, an antioxidant. Read her article for a lot more.
Related To Cabbage Recipes
Related Posts On How To Cut Foods
Conclusion Of How To Cut A Cabbage
Now you’ve seen how to cut a cabbage. And you’ve learned how to clean, carve, shred, and store cabbage in its various sizes. Also, you’ve found that nearly all of them will have the same beginning. You’ve discovered how to shred with a knife when you don’t have a shredder. Finally, you’ve noticed some related cabbage recipes. So, pickup a head of cabbage today and start preparing to eat a good healthy vegetable. In conclusion, don’t forget to share this with others and also to let me know what you’ve made with your cabbage.