Buttered Napa Cabbage and Edamame: Announcing the Winners of Battle Napa Cabbage

This simple side dish consists of nothing more than lightly steamed slices of napa cabbage and shelled edamame. The vegetables are glistened with melted butter and seasoned to taste with salt and pepper. It's one of those sides that are simple enough for a weeknight dinner, elegant enough for company, take minutes to make, cost very little money, go with just about everything, and allow you to really taste the vegetables.



I usually stick with the 1 part napa cabbage:1/4 part edamame. One tablespoon of butter per every three cups of cooked vegetables is plenty for me. The amount of salt and pepper is up to you.

With this simple side dish, we conclude our third round of Beet 'n Squash YOU! - Battle Napa Cabbage. My co-host, Mel, and I would like to thank our Battle Napa Cabbage participants who joined in the fun despite their busy schedules these past few weeks. Because of the holidays the entries are smaller in number than what we had seen in the previous months, though, I have to say, they're not at all inferior in quality. Thank you, everybody.

And now my pick of the winner of Beet 'n Squash YOU! Battle Napa Cabbage.

Lan of Angry Asian Creations stuck her angry hand into my rib cage and took hold of my racing heart with this Stuffed Napa Cabbage Roll Soup. For days, I got this dish floating in my brain. As much as I love Golubtsi (Голубцы), stuffed cabbage rolls according to the Russian tradition, Lan's cabbage rolls are quickly becoming a new favorite of mine.

I love it when the dishes submitted by our participants put the theme vegetable in the spotlight and make the most of what it has to offer. Anything short of that would be like, you know, dating a gorgeous, intelligent person and putting a potato sack over his/her head every time you go out and forcing him/her to talk dumb. I'm very impressed with the way in which Lan has used napa cabbage in this dish.

In terms of texture, napa cabbage leaves, in my very subjective and bigoted opinion, make for a much better wrapper than regular green cabbage. While the latter is more "brittle," for lack of a better word, when cooked, the former becomes lithe and pliable, yet retains chewiness in the green leafy parts and doesn't turns mushy as easily. I wish I could describe better the superiority of napa cabbage when it comes to wrapping meat-based filling in a braised dish, but my vocabulary fails me. I guess that means you just have to try Lan's recipe and see for yourself why I went nuts for it.

Great job, Lan. Congratulations!

Mel has chosen her favorite dish as well. Mel's pick of the winner of Beet 'n Squash YOU! Battle Napa Cabbage:


Mark of Sift makes a traditional Polish Christmas Eve dish Uszka with napa cabbage and duck filling and Barszcz. The "little ears" are served in bright red beet broth. Mark uses duck broth to make his Barszcz. (See his technique on how to clarify duck broth here.) The elaborate soup is topped with crunchy duck cracklings.

Awesome job, Mark. Congrats!

Let's take a look at all the entries:

Cathy of ShowFood Chef makes this simple, elegant, and hearty Warm Napa Cabbage with Black Rice. Napa cabbage stalks, sliced thinly, are cooked with onions and mushrooms and tossed with soft and chewy black rice.








Natasha of 5-Star Foodie Culinary Adventures makes this fresh, healthy, and completely vegan slaw of napa cabbage, apples, and carrots. She dresses the slaw with soy-based mayonnaise spiked with fresh Meyer lemon juice.












Our Battle Fennel Champion Nastassia of Let Me Eat Cake shows us once again how to create a simple, perfect dish. Nastassia makes Ain't Your Mama's Slaw -- a made-over version of the old-fashioned salad featuring fresh napa dressed dill-spiked dressing. The slaw comes with smoked salmon, whose flavor ties in beautifully with the dill, and the crispy, wispy Sardinian Carta di Musica bread.










Quasi Serendipita, another one of our Battle Fennel Champion, has once again shown us what she can do with Asinan Jakarta -- a spicy Indonesian salad of assorted vegetables, chief among them is fresh napa cabbage. Fried peanuts as well as crispy and light-as-air prawn crackers add to the crunch and round out the flavors. Is it any wonder Asinan is so well loved in Indonesia?






Our friend, Rick, has come up with a light, healthy, and low-carb menu: Braised Napa Cabbage, Poached Salmon in Champagne Sauce with Cream of Napa Soup. The lightly sauteed napa is blended into a velvety cream soup. More napa is braised with garlic and chives until soft and served as a side for poached salmon with a drizzle of delicious champagne sauce.

To see the recipe, please visit this page.





Eric of My Hungry Tum who maintains that of all of the many, many slaws he has had in his lifetime, his mother's slaw dressing is the best. He uses a slightly-tweaked version of that delicious dressing to make this very interesting and beautiful Granny Smith Minted Napa Coleslaw.








Mel or Gourmet Fury, my talented co-host, has entered these gorgeous jewel-like Shrimp Dumplings in Napa Wrapping wherein she wrapped blanched napa cabbage leaves around a shrimp filling. What a fresh, beautiful, healthy Dim Sum dish!

Gourmet Fury has tons of helpful tips on how to create Chinese dishes such as this. Have you checked out the tutorial on how to make Mel's Mom's famous wontons?





And lastly ...

My entry of fresh napa cabbage and radish salad is topped with crunchy fried glass noodles and dressed with the more vinegary version of my mother's Thai peanut sauce.









Thank you again, everybody, for making Battle Napa Cabbage such a fun event. If you have not participated in our Beet 'n Squash YOU! contest, please take a look at how you can do so and get ready for our next battle ...



February is BATTLE MUSHROOMS! We have a prize this time!!