Shove over zoodles (zucchini noodles).  Besides that I don’t like the taste of raw zucchini, the summer cabbages have come to the market!  This is one of my favourite ways to eat cabbage and it serves up beautifully at room temperature or lightly cooled.  It’s so easy it’s almost embarassing to call this a recipe…  The ‘noodles’ can be as thick or thin as you like them and the technique – if you omit the dressing – is a great one for making a gluten-free plate of greens to sauce up with your favourite pasta dressing (sans-pasta of course).

Yield: 1 serving

What you need:

• 3 or 4 leaves of cabbage, whole
• 1 tsp to 1 tbsp of hemp hearts
• 1 tsp cold-pressed organic flax oil (or hemp oil; or toasted sesame oil)
• 2 tiny pinches of salt or 1 tiny pinch of salt and toasted seaweed powder
• a wedge of fresh lemon

What you do:

1. Find a pot that will contain the whole cabbage leaves, relatively uncurled.  Put a wee bit of water in the bottom of the pot (between 1/16th and 1/8th of an inch) and the tiniest pinch of salt.  Put in the cabbage leaves, one on top of the other, cover the pot and place on medium-high heat.
2. When the water boils and steam starts to show, turn down to medium.  Steam/boil, covered, quickly turning the leaves over with tongs now and again, until the cabbage is cooked through and bright and tender.  There should be little or no water left in the bottom of the pot when you’re done.  There shouldn’t be any scorching either.  If there’s no more water but the cabbage isn’t done yet, add extra as required.
3. Alternatively, the leaves can also be steamed until tender if you prefer.
4. As soon as the cabbage is cooked, transfer it to a cutting board in a single layer to cool.
5. When cool enough to handle, roll the leaves together tightly and slice crosswise into ‘noodles’ of any thickness desired.
6. In the bottom of a small mixing bowl or large measuring cup, squeeze the juice from the wedge of lemon.  Add the flax oil and pinch of salt (if not using seaweed powder to garnish).  Whisk together.
7. Add the cabbage ‘noodles’ and hemp hearts and toss to coat everything in dressing.
8. Serve, garnished with toasted seaweed powder if using (wakamé is particularly nice).