By Rabbi Rachel Esserman

Am I the only one who didn’t know that cabbage is having a “moment”? According to “A Jewish Ode to Cabbage” on the Kveller website (www.kveller.com/a-jewish-ode-to-cabbage), cabbage is “trending in foodie circles.” (For those who don’t speak social media, that means lots of people are posting about it on various websites and social networking apps, and offering recipes featuring cabbage.) Cabbage seems like such a homey, pedestrian food that I never expected anyone to write an ode to it. (Then again, one of my first food columns was an ode to herring, a food on which not everyone agrees.)
Alas, two of my favorite cabbage dishes are ones I’m not supposed to eat for health reasons. It’s been years since I regularly ate coleslaw, even though I love it. Why? Because it’s filled with sugar, something I carefully avoided for five years in the 1990s and which I should avoid more now than I do. When my synagogue’s religious school had potlucks before the pandemic, I would often bring store-made coleslaw so I could enjoy a taste of it, but not have to eat the whole container’s worth. I’ve put other dressings on cabbage, some of which I like, but it’s not the same as old-fashioned coleslaw.
As for sauerkraut, when I was growing up, we always had cans of sauerkraut in the cupboard. It makes a great snack and it’s also good for gut heath. But now that, sigh, I have to watch my sodium, I’ve been avoiding it. (The same is true, double sigh here, of pickles.) When I was growing up, it was part of any meal featuring hotdogs and baked beans. My older brother would cut up his hotdog, mix it with the beans and sauerkraut, and pour ketchup and mustard over that. If you’re thinking, “Oh, yuck,” that was my reaction. In fact, I sometimes wonder if he did it just because he knew I hated it. 
I remember two other recipes that contained sauerkraut that frequented our table. In the winter, my mom would make sauerkraut soup with sauerkraut, tomatoes, flanken (beef short ribs, although I had to look that up because we only called it flanken) and other ingredients that I don’t remember. We never ate it the first day because it was one of those foods that improve the longer they sit. I also remember my mom skimming fat off the top each day. I have no idea if my mom followed a recipe or if she just knew what to add. That means I could never duplicate it.
Another favorite cabbage recipe was one we learned from the late Anne Pelter. She would cut the cabbage into small pieces and place them in a frying pan. They were simmered in butter, butter and more butter. The cabbage cooked until it was translucent and melt-in-your-mouth delicious. I have no idea if she added anything else. All I know is that it was love at first bite. 
I don’t know if this means my family was ahead of or behind the curve. Will I try any of the recipes on the Kveller site? I doubt it, but I might look for low sodium sauerkraut or low sugar coleslaw. I’m not holding my breath for finding either of those, though, but it gives me something nice to think about.