Dear friends, good morning! I’m sharing a quick and delicious recipe: sautéed black cabbage with breadcrumbs. 😋 Have you ever tried it?

The first person who had the idea to add breadcrumbs to vegetables deserves an award, in my opinion. Since my children were little, I’ve considered breadcrumbs on vegetables a genius idea that often saved me in my eternal struggle to get them to eat vegetables. 💪

There are many recipes for breadcrumbed vegetables (from potatoes to fennel to mixed vegetables, often baked) circulating online for many years, but my home recipes date back decades and didn’t come from the web. Before I discovered they were called ‘breadcrumbed’, I simply called them ‘vegetables with breadcrumbs’ and cooked them in a pan.

The culprit for this preference for breadcrumbed vegetables is my sister-in-law. As you know, she’s my main source of culinary ideas and information! She suggested this trick of breadcrumbing vegetables, a trick she learned on the job. And guess where?… at the school cafeteria! 😃

Simply, she told me that her elementary school students ate everything without complaint on days when the cafeteria served carrot with breadcrumbs. This was a revelation for me. It worked so well that I later personalized it, for example, by adding sesame, making it one of the very first recipes on this blog, a recipe I am very fond of.

And that’s it, now both my children are well into adulthood but breadcrumbed vegetables keep disappearing as if by magic, so much so that in recent days, I got carried away and repeatedly made both carrots and fennel, and even tried breadcrumbing a pan of red radicchio and mixed vegetables.

Caught up in the enthusiasm, while sautéing black cabbage in the pan with garlic… I had the idea to breadcrumb him too. After all, doing two plus two and grabbing the breadcrumbs is a matter of a moment!

☝️☝️😀 Never run out of breadcrumbs at home, I advise!

And should the sautéed black cabbage with breadcrumbs not entirely please everyone in the family (!), here are some other ideas for other breadcrumbed vegetables, cooked in various ways:

Difficulty: Very easy
Cost: Economical
Preparation time: 10 Minutes
Portions: 2
Cooking methods: Stove
Cuisine: Italian
Seasonality: Autumn, Winter, and Spring

Ingredients

1.1 lbs black cabbage
1/3 cup breadcrumbs
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
chili pepper
capers
chopped parsley
leek (or onion)
garlic

Tools

2 Frying Pans non-stick
1 High Sided Saucepan with lid

Steps

Remove the stems from the black cabbage.
👉 Leaves can be removed from the stem by pulling them off with one hand (while holding the stem with the other hand). If this is a method unknown to you, you can remove them using a knife.
Wash the leaves in water.
Place the leaves (moist, without shaking off too much) in a pot and cook them covered on low heat for 15-20 minutes. No need to add water, but it’s good to check and, if needed, add a few tablespoons of water.
👉 Cooking vegetables this way limits nutrient loss to water and preserves flavor.
Once cooked, transfer the black cabbage to a non-stick pan. Sauté it for a few minutes with a clove of garlic and a teaspoon of oil to flavor and remove excess water.
In another pan (or the same pan, after removing and placing the black cabbage on a plate) toast the breadcrumbs with a teaspoon of oil, some capers, chopped parsley, a piece of leek (or onion) and chili pepper.
Here it is, I transferred it to a white plate for a photo:
👉 To taste, you can add to the breadcrumbs other herbs or flavors, such as chopped dried tomato or olives, black or green. I limited myself to a few capers as overuse of salty products isn’t my habit. A few capers, for my habits, are more than sufficient to add flavor.
Combine the black cabbage with the breadcrumbs in the pan, stir for a few minutes to make the breadcrumbs adhere to the leaves.
If desired, you can finish with a drizzle of raw oil.
Serve hot.
I liked it very much. It was nicely spicy, and I ate it on slices of seed bread (the no-knead one, just like yesterday’s recipe) slightly spread with stracchino cheese. A really tasty combination for me.
No photo, because I was enjoying it so much that I didn’t think to take one, but I’m sure you can imagine the scene perfectly! 😀

Salt-Free Tips

Salt-Free No need to add salt to this recipe; the black cabbage – especially if cooked as I suggested, or steamed – retains all its intense flavor. Additionally, the chili in the “breadcrumbing” perfectly completes the recipe.

As mentioned previously in the note inserted in the procedure, other ingredients can be added to the breadcrumbs. However, be careful not to overdo it with brined products like olives or jarred dried tomatoes. If needed, I recommend making your own dried tomatoes, 😉 here’s my tutorial –> Drying Tomatoes with a Dehydrator.

If you’re interested in reducing or eliminating salt, always remember to:
▫ Reduce salt gradually; the palate needs to adjust slowly and shouldn’t notice the progressive reduction.
▫ Use spices. Chili pepper, pepper, curry, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, cumin…
▫ Use herbs. Basil, parsley, oregano, thyme, sage, marjoram, rosemary, mint…
▫ Use seeds. Sesame, pine nuts, almonds, walnuts…
▫ Use pungent vegetables or fruit. Garlic, onion, lemon, orange…
▫ Use my salt-free vegetable granules and gomasio.
▫ Prefer fresh foods.
▫ Avoid water-based cooking; prefer methods that retain flavors (grilling, foil, steaming, microwave)
▫ Avoid bringing the salt shaker to the table!
▫ Allow yourself a cheat day occasionally. It’s good for your mood and helps perseverance.

If you don’t want to, or can’t, give up salt:
▫ You can still try my recipes by salting according to your habits.

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Moreover…

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Delicious Recipes

Sautéed Black Cabbage with Breadcrumbs