Red Cabbage Limeade

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I never really enjoy raw red (purple) cabbage, but this vegetable is always in my fridge as my family loves it in our salads. If I have a lot of leftover red cabbage, I prefer to cook them instead. This changed recently when I tried a very nice red cabbage smoothie at a cafe. I am surprised that I loved it! So with this drink recipe, which is basically a red cabbage limeade, I can now ‘eat’ a lot more raw red cabbage by drinking it. The limeade (like lemonade but made with small limes or calamasi) subtly masks & complements the raw taste of the cabbage, making it more palatable, even delicious, for me.

See Also:

• Braised Red Cabbage with Bacon Recipe
• Easy Refreshing Drinks Recipes

2 main ingredients – red cabbage, small lime aka calamasi (or substitute with lemon) and honey (or any sweetener).

If you notice, my red cabbage drink has a top layer of foam in it. The reason is that red cabbage contains a high level of insoluble fiber, so the fiber separates from the drink when blended at high speed. While the foam is not pretty to look at, it is all right to consume it. So I just drink it like that, (insoluble) fiber and all. To reduce the foam though, check out the tips below.

Tips to eliminate the cabbage foam

Skim and discard the top layer of foam using a mesh strainer. The resultant drink (above) has much reduced foam. Also, I noticed accidentally that if I let the drink sit in the fridge for a while (I made it in advance for dinner), the foam is much reduced versus drinking it right away.

Add a small amount of healthy fat when blending. I used avocado flesh (pictured below), which binds well with the insoluble fiber of the cabbage. The avocado not only gives the drink a creamy texture (pictured above), but the foam is completely gone too. When only a small amount of avocado is used, the taste of this smoothie is not altered much.

More tips from this site:

Tip 4: Run the blender on the lowest speed for 10 to 20 seconds after blending.
Tip 5: Pour the smoothie into the serving glass slowly, using a spatula to hold back the foam in the blender.