Recipes with napa cabbage

42 recipes. Page 1 of 2

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Bishu Nabe (Sake-Cooked Meat and Vegetable Hot Pot)

No water or dashi goes into this pot: chicken, gizzards, pork and vegetables cook in sake and whatever moisture the vegetables release. The dish comes from Saijo in Higashihiroshima, Hiroshima Prefecture, where sake brewery workers ate it during breaks in brewing. With so little liquid, each ingredient keeps its own flavor, and diners season their portion with salt and pepper. Cooking it in two rounds, half the ingredients at a time, keeps the napa cabbage and garlic chives from going limp.

Prep 30min Cook 35min 4 servings

Side dishes Easy

Baechu Namul Muchim

Perilla powder goes in last, after the boiled napa cabbage has been dressed with doenjang. It soaks up the water left on the leaves, so the seasoning clings to each strand instead of pooling in the bowl. One tablespoon is enough; more turns the dish pasty.

⚡ 20-Minute Recipes 🏠 Everyday

Prep 10min Cook 5min 4 servings

Rice Easy

Korean Napa Cabbage Doenjang Porridge

Toasting the rice in sesame oil first keeps its starch from rushing out all at once, and the porridge sticks to the pot less. The doenjang (Korean soybean paste) is pushed through a fine sieve into anchovy broth, and finely chopped napa cabbage and onion melt into the rice over 20-plus minutes at a low simmer.

Prep 10min Cook 30min 2 servings

Stir-fry Easy

Korean Cabbage Doenjang Stir-Fry

With nothing but napa cabbage, doenjang, garlic, perilla oil and sesame seeds, the cabbage's own sweetness comes through. Take it off the heat while the thick ribs still have a little crunch.

⚡ 20-Minute Recipes 🏠 Everyday

Prep 5min Cook 8min 2 servings

Grilled Easy

Korean Grilled Cabbage Leaf Wraps

Instead of lettuce or perilla, this ssam uses napa cabbage leaves charred briefly on a grill, which pick up smoke and sweetness while the inner ribs keep their crunch. That crunch is what lets a leaf wrap around grilled pork belly without tearing. A doenjang-based ssamjang adds salty, fermented depth to the pork fat and cabbage sweetness, and a lightly grilled chili tucked in brings heat.

⚡ 20-Minute Recipes

Prep 10min Cook 10min 2 servings

Soups Easy

Korean Napa Cabbage Perilla Soup

Perilla seed powder turns the broth a pale cream color and brings a grassy, nutty smell unlike sesame oil or sesame seeds. The base is doenjang dissolved in rice-rinsing water rather than a fish stock. It belongs with the Korean perilla soups made from dried radish greens or mushrooms, and it comes to the table with white rice once autumn starts to turn cold.

🏠 Everyday

Prep 12min Cook 22min 4 servings

Pancakes Medium

Korean Shepherd's Purse & Napa Pancake

Shepherd's purse, an early-spring wild green, is added roots and all, bringing a faint bitterness that the salted, softened napa cabbage balances with sweetness. The greens need only a thin coat of batter, and heavy mixing crushes the tender leaves before they reach the pan.

Prep 18min Cook 14min 4 servings

Stews Easy

Korean Dried Pollock Napa Stew

Dried pollock strips toasted briefly in perilla oil give this clear, chili-free stew a nutty base, and napa cabbage softens slowly into it, adding its own sweetness. The pollock only gets a quick dip in water, since a long soak washes out its flavor.

🥗 Lighter Meals

Prep 10min Cook 25min 4 servings

Steamed Medium

Korean Steamed Beef Mille-Feuille Cabbage

Napa cabbage and paper-thin beef brisket (usamgyeop) are stacked in layers, cut to the height of the pot and stood on end, and when the lid comes off the cross-sections line up in rows. The thick white part of the cabbage, rather than the leafy tops, is what lets the stacks hold that shape. Nothing seasons the broth itself, which is just cabbage water and beef juices, and each piece is dipped in a soy, vinegar and garlic sauce at the table. That puts the saltiness in each person's hands rather than in the pot. Packing the bundles tightly, with cabbage scraps in any gaps, stops them toppling as the pot steams.

🎉 For Guests

Prep 25min Cook 25min 4 servings

Kimchi Easy

Korean Fresh Cabbage Kimchi

Napa cabbage salted for just 20 minutes and tossed straight into a gochugaru dressing gives kimchi with no sourness at all: the red pepper heat and the savory anchovy fish sauce come through cleanly. The short salting bends the thick ribs slightly while keeping them much crisper than fermented kimchi. Sesame oil and sesame seeds are added at the very end, so a nutty aroma sits over the chili. Geotjeori, as this fresh style is called in Korea, is served alongside grilled pork belly or doenjang-jjigae (fermented soybean paste stew), and it fills in when the jar of aged kimchi runs empty. It is best right after mixing, and leftovers keep a day or two chilled.

⚡ 20-Minute Recipes

Prep 20min 0 6 servings

Noodles Medium

Houtou Pumpkin Miso Noodles

Wide flour noodles from Yamanashi simmer straight in miso broth with kabocha, potato, daikon, and napa cabbage, leaving the soup thick and slow to cool. In mountain areas poorly suited to rice, houtou long served as a staple, and its lasting warmth means it is eaten most often in winter. Unlike udon, the dough has no salt and the floured strips are never boiled on their own, which leaves their starch to thicken the pot.

Prep 50min Cook 35min 5 servings

Asian Medium

Gyoza

Browning gyoza on one flat side only and then steaming them under a lid leaves the pleats soft and tender while the bottom turns golden and crisp. Japanese families brought the idea home from Manchuria after the war, recreating the jiaozi they had eaten there.

Prep 40min Cook 15min 4 servings

Rice Easy

Korean Napa Cabbage Tofu Porridge

Made with vegetable broth, this porridge gets its sweetness from napa cabbage. The white stems go in with the rice and the leaves about 10 minutes later, since the two cook at different speeds. Soft tofu, roughly crumbled by hand, simmers only for the last 3 minutes.

Prep 15min Cook 25min 2 servings

Stir-fry Easy

Korean Napa Cabbage Shrimp Stir-fry

The shrimp are scored along the back, seared for just 30 seconds and set aside on a plate. They go back in only after the cabbage is done, so the shrimp stay springy and the stems keep their crunch. Soy sauce with a little fish sauce does the seasoning.

🏠 Everyday

Prep 14min Cook 8min 2 servings

Soups Easy

Korean Cabbage Oyster Soup

Midwinter napa cabbage grows sweeter the more cold it weathers, and simmered from cold water with radish it sweetens the broth with no separate stock. The oysters go in last for a minute or two, and since they bring plenty of salt, the soy sauce stays light.

🏠 Everyday

Prep 15min Cook 20min 4 servings

Kimchi Medium

Korean Napa Cabbage Kimchi

Salting decides the texture of this napa cabbage kimchi: under-salted leaves weep liquid and turn mushy during fermentation, while over-salted ones bury the seasoning. Blooming the gochugaru in sweet rice paste before the fish sauce goes in gives a heavy paste that clings to each leaf instead of sliding off. Spread it thinly between the layers, since too much filling makes the kimchi salty and soft. Fresh-tasting at first, it grows deeper and tangier after about a week, and well-soured kimchi is the one to use for kimchi-jjigae or stir-fried kimchi.

Prep 50min 0 4 servings

Noodles Medium

Taipiien (Kumamoto Glass Noodle Soup)

Glass noodles, shrimp, squid, pork, napa cabbage, and wood ear fill a clear chicken broth, finished with half a hard-boiled egg on top. The dish came from Fuzhou in China's Fujian province, where it was a celebration food, and reached Kumamoto by way of Nagasaki in the late Meiji era. Today it appears at Chinese restaurants and home tables in central Kumamoto as lunch, dinner, or a meal after drinking. The seafood is added only after the pork and firm vegetables have cooked, which keeps the shrimp and squid from turning rubbery. To keep the broth clear, the glass noodles are boiled and rinsed separately, warmed in the soup only at the end, and the heat is cut as soon as the sesame oil and scallion are added.

Prep 30min Cook 25min 2 servings

Asian Medium

Lion's Head Meatballs (Chinese Braised Large Pork Meatballs with Cabbage)

Four fist-sized pork meatballs sit on a bed of napa cabbage and braise slowly in a light soy broth, staying moist and soft right to the surface instead of carrying a fried crust. The cabbage keeps the pork off the hot pot bottom and turns silky as it soaks up the meat juices.

Prep 25min Cook 35min 4 servings

Stir-fry Easy

Fuzhu (Dried Bean Curd) Mala Xiang Guo

Dried fuzhu, folded sheets of bean curd skin, need at least 2 hours of soaking, so this dish starts well before the wok is hot. Once softened, their spongy layers soak up the store-bought mala sauce, numbing and chili-hot, and turn chewy.

🏠 Everyday

Prep 120min Cook 15min 2 servings

Soups Easy

Korean Napa Cabbage Clam Soup

No anchovy or kelp stock here, just the liquor from the clams and the sweetness of napa cabbage, so the soup tastes clean and gentle. That also means any leftover grit has nowhere to hide, which is why the clams need a thorough soak beforehand.

🏠 Everyday

Prep 20min Cook 18min 4 servings

Kimchi Medium

Korean White Kimchi (Non-Spicy Napa Pear Fermented)

With no gochugaru at all, this white kimchi is mild, and its clear brine is eaten along with the cabbage. Pear, radish, garlic and ginger carry the flavor instead, and the pear adds sweetness while softening the fermented smell. The filling is tossed lightly with fingertips, because rough handling bruises the radish and pear strips, and everything is drained well to keep the brine from clouding. After half a day at room temperature it ferments slowly in the fridge for 2 to 3 weeks, until the liquid tastes clean, cool and gently sour, a good foil for fatty meat.

Prep 50min Cook 20min 4 servings

Asian Easy

Kanto-Style Sukiyaki (Japanese Beef Hot Pot in Sweet Soy Warishita Broth)

The negi go into the dry pot first, no oil, and brown at the edges before the warishita is poured in, a premixed blend of soy sauce, mirin, sugar, and sake. Cabbage, shiitake, grilled tofu, and shirataki each get their own patch of the pot, and the thin beef goes in a few slices at a time, lifted out as soon as it is cooked.

Prep 15min Cook 20min 3 servings

Soups Medium

Botan Nabe Wild Boar Hotpot

Botan means peony, and the name comes from the way thin slices of wild boar are fanned out on the platter like petals. The meat cooks with burdock and taro in a broth of mixed red and white miso, and the sansho pepper stays out of the pot, sprinkled over each bowl instead.

🏠 Everyday

Prep 35min Cook 30min 4 servings

Kimchi Hard

Korean Stuffed Bossam Kimchi

Bo-kimchi wraps a filling of julienned radish, Korean pear, chestnuts, and blanched octopus in brined napa cabbage leaves, then ferments the bundles. After brining, check that the thick cabbage stems bend without snapping, and drain the rinsed leaves well, because wet leaves leave a watery pool inside each parcel. Overlap two large leaves so the filling is enclosed without gaps, and pack the bundles seam side down so they stay closed while they ferment. Blanch the octopus only briefly, since longer cooking makes it tough.

At least 3 days 17 hr 4 servings