If you live in the South, tradition says you must eat boiled cabbage and blackeye peas on New Year’s day for good luck and fortune. And the grocery stores are full of bins of large cabbages. Several days after New Years, one of the bins still had cabbages–they were on sale for $.25 a pound. Of course I purchased one. But rather than cooking more boiled cabbage, I’m making a brined coleslaw and freezing the left-overs.

I have learned to love cabbage over the years. I think it is one of those vegetables that you learn to like as the years roll along. And there seemingly an endless number of ways to prepare cabbage — boiled, au gratin, stuffed, coleslaw, sauerkraut. My recipe for colorful brined coleslaw is one that dates back to growing up. My mother couldn’t stand to waste or throw anything away and developed a recipe for a cabbage slaw that she kept in the freezer.

Cabbage is a very healthy vegetable; it is packed with nutrition. Cabbage is cruciferous vegetable and a member of the Brassica genus of vegetables which also includes broccoli, cauliflower and kale. We learned in school that cabbage was rich in Vitamin C and fiber; low in calories. It also includes many other vitamins and powerful antioxidant phenols which are important in preventing free radical damage and possibly protecting against some forms of cancers and other chronic diseases. So eat alot of this vegetable!

Here’s my cabbage in the bin at the store. Cabbages ripen in cool weather; just right for New Years. These are shipped in from somewhere in the North.

This one weighed over 6 pounds and when shredded, filled two large containers.

For this recipe, I shredded the cabbage in the food processor and added onions, carrots and colorful bell peppers. For this batch, I added a Serrano pepper that was on hand.

For the recipe, a flavorful brine is made by boiling apple cider vinegar, sugar, salt and mustard seed and celery seed. Then the brine is cooled and poured over the shredded vegetables. You need alot of brine to for this large batch. Cover the large containers with a heavy plate and let the coleslaw in the set in the refrigerator.

To serve, I’ll often add cheese, tomatoes and some mayonnaise to the coleslaw. Or serve as is. Either way, it’s a flavorful cabbage slaw; very tasty. Divide the leftover slaw among freezer containers, date, label and freeze.

Enjoy this tasty and healthy recipe for the New Year!