Chinese lettuce, better known as Chinese cabbage or petsai, originated more than 5,000 years ago in China, gradually spreading from there throughout Southeast Asia.
This vegetable came to Europe and America only at the end of the last century, gradually becoming one of the popular products used in cooking along with white and red cabbage. The large, white-green leaves of the plant are very similar in appearance to lettuce, but have a juicier taste and tender flesh.
The low calorie content of the vegetable has made it one of the most popular dietary products.
Light cabbage salad
A quick and easy salad made from finely shredded cabbage, prepared in just a few minutes.
Mash well with a pinch of salt until the brine comes out. Seasoned with chopped green onions and lemon juice.
- Without oil 31.84 kcal
- With oil 46.9 kcal
- With mayonnaise 82.2 kcal
Choosing products
Vegetables
For any recipe for fresh cabbage salad with cucumber, you first need to choose vegetables. It’s good if you can go out into the garden and pick everything fresh and tasty. However, this “happiness” is not available to everyone. Therefore, we will choose the ingredients for the salad from the most commonly available ones - store-bought ones.
Fresh white cabbage comes in two main levels of maturity:
- young - the upper leaves are light green, and the head itself is not yet very dense. In this form it is the most juicy and tender;
- mature - the head of cabbage is very dense, the stalk is large, and the leaves are white. This type of cabbage may be a little tougher than young cabbage, but it has achieved the maximum level of benefits.
To choose a fresh product, you need to carefully examine the head of cabbage. The upper leaves should not be limp or withered. Blackening of the upper layers indicates long and improper storage. Ripe cabbage should not be pressed with your hands.
Choosing cucumbers is even easier - their color should be rich, bright, and the vegetables themselves should be limp and elastic.
Refueling
Any salad requires dressing. They are divided according to taste, as well as caloric content:
- Vegetable oil is the most affordable and common dressing and has the lowest calorie content. It is for salads dressed with oil that the energy value of the recipes below (except for the last one) will be calculated.
- Lemon juice. Rarely used alone - more often in combination with butter and sugar. The result is a very tasty, but higher calorie mixture.
- Yogurt. A classic drink without additional flavors will be an interesting solution and will create an original combination of flavors, which, however, not everyone will like.
- Sour cream. A more traditional dressing, and in many ways repeats the previous point, but with its own flavor and higher calorie content.
- Mayonnaise. The fattest, most harmful, but also... the most favorite dressing for many. The taste already contains acid, salt, and sugar, which makes the combination of ingredients more harmonious, but the calorie content is high.
Having chosen the vegetables and decided on the dressing, it’s time to move on to the recipes for cabbage salads with cucumber.
Classic recipe
| Ingredients | Quantity |
| medium sized cabbage - | 0.5 heads of cabbage |
| medium cucumbers - | 3 pcs. |
| salt and spices - | taste |
| refueling - | at your own discretion |
| Cooking time: 10 minutes | Calorie content per 100 grams: 25 Kcal |
The process of preparing fresh cabbage salad with cucumber is very simple. Wash the vegetables. Depending on the freshness of the cucumbers, they can be peeled or used whole. Next, the cucumber is cut into strips or semicircles.
The cabbage is finely chopped.
Everything is placed in a deep bowl, mixed with salt and spices, and seasoned. You need to let the salad stand for a few minutes to release the juice, stir again, and you can eat.
To make the cabbage release its juice very quickly, you can chop it, add coarse (!) salt and mix thoroughly with your hands. While the salt particles dissolve, they will have time to “work” well - literally before our eyes it will become softer and release moisture.
With carrots
Next is the same cabbage, but with the addition of carrots.
Here the numbers climbed to the top. Carrots increased the value of the product, but not very significantly. The salad still remains attractive in terms of calorie content.
- Without oil 49.8 kcal
- With oils 66.9 kcal
- With mayonnaise 124.76 kcal
Recipe for fresh cabbage salad with cucumber and radish
Components:
- half a kilo of cabbage;
- cucumbers – 3 pieces;
- radishes - approximately equal in weight to cucumbers;
- fresh herbs;
- salt pepper;
- refueling
Time: 12 minutes.
Calorie content (per 0.1 kg): 49 kcal.
Cooking process: finely chop the cabbage, cut the cucumber into semicircles or strips, and cut the radishes in the same way. However, if the vegetable is not young and hard, you can grate it. The greens are finely chopped. Combine the ingredients, add dressing and mix well.
Add ham
Components:
- cabbage – 300 gr;
- two or three cucumbers;
- three eggs;
- ham – 150 gr;
- salt, herbs, spices;
- refueling
Time: 15 minutes.
Calorie content (per 0.1 kg): 112 kcal.
This is already a denser (heartier) dish. It can not only serve as a good appetizer or be used as a snack, but also become a full-fledged meal. In addition, the proteins contained in ham are no less necessary for organisms than vitamins.
Boil the eggs, cool and cut into cubes. While they are boiling, chop the cabbage. Add a little salt and set aside in a deep bowl to release the juice. Next, chop the greens and cut the remaining ingredients into strips. Everything gets mixed up. The salad is dressed with spices.
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Fragrant salad with nut crumbs
A tasty and tender salad with a subtle nutty note will appeal to lovers of juicy summer snacks with a twist.
Ingredients:
- Early cabbage - 1 head
- Hot red pepper
- Sugar - 2 tsp.
- Cilantro - 5 sprigs
- Cucumber - 1 pc.
- Lime juice - 1/4 cup
- Roasted salted peanuts - 1/2 cup
- Garlic powder - 1/2 tsp.
- Peanut butter - 1/3 cup
- Salt - 3/4 tsp.
Preparation:
Chop the cabbage and cucumber into strips.
Mix peanut butter, salt, garlic powder and lime juice for dressing.
Grind cilantro and hot pepper.
Mix all ingredients, season with aromatic sauce.
Before serving, sprinkle the salad with roasted salted peanuts.
Spicy salad with lightly salted cucumbers
A refreshing, tasty and aromatic salad will perfectly complement meat and fish dishes.
Ingredients:
- Early white cabbage - 600 g
- White wine vinegar - 10 ml.
- Lightly salted cucumbers – 100 g
- Olive oil - 50 ml.
- Radish - 100 g
- Salt - to taste
- Dill - 50 g
- Ground black pepper
Preparation:
Chop the cabbage into small strips.
Grind the radishes and cucumbers into slices.
Chop the dill.
Mix the salad ingredients and season with wine vinegar. Leave for 5 minutes, then add spices, salt, olive oil.
Mix the appetizer and serve.
Main properties and benefits
Let's look at the main points:
- after slight temperature treatment of cabbage, the content of ascorbic acid in it increases, which occurs due to ascorbigen, which is converted into vitamin C;
- helps improve metabolism;
- tartronic acid, which is part of this product, has anti-sclerosis properties, and also prevents the deposition of fats and cholesterol (to preserve tartronic acid in the vegetable, it should not be subjected to heat treatment);
- due to the high choline content, it normalizes the body's metabolic fat processes;
- the phytoncides that are present in its composition have a detrimental effect on many harmful microbes, including tuberculosis bacilli;
- fiber normalizes the functioning of the intestines and promotes the elimination of toxins.
People came up with various salads with this product to maintain the effectiveness and variety of their diet. And now we will look at a few of them.
Salad "Dniester"
This salad does not have a strict recipe and clear proportions, everything can be changed to your taste, but sausage (ham), cabbage, peas, cucumber are products that must be present.
- cabbage - 200 g
- cucumbers - 3 pcs.
- smoked sausage or ham - 200 g
- green peas - 200 g
- boiled eggs - 2 pcs.
- greens - a bunch of assorted
- mustard - 2 tbsp. l.
- vegetable oil - 2 tbsp. l.
- black pepper, salt - to taste.
Cooking steps
- Cut eggs, sausage and cucumbers into cubes.
- Chop the cabbage and chop the greens with a knife.
- Whisk the mustard and butter into a homogeneous dressing sauce.
- Combine the products and season them.
Cabbage salad "Vitamin"
There is probably no vitamin or microelement that would not be found in this salad. If you use it a couple of times a week throughout the summer, you will be able to restore immunity undermined by winter colds and spring hypovitaminosis. In addition, the salad of young cabbage with cucumbers is very tasty, thanks to the variety of ingredients, so it is eaten with pleasure.
- young white cabbage - 100 g
- Chinese cabbage - 2-3 leaves
- seaweed - 100 g
- fresh cucumbers - 2 pcs.
- radishes - 10 pcs.
- apple (green with sour taste) - 2 pcs.
- red salad onion - 1 pc.
- celery stalk - 4-5 cm
- walnuts - a handful of peeled kernels
- garlic - 2-3 cloves
- greens - several branches of each type
- soy sauce - 3 tbsp. l.
- liquid honey - 2 tbsp. l.
- vegetable oil - 2 tbsp. l.
How to do:
- All types of cabbage should be chopped.
- Cut the tomatoes into thin slices.
- Grate cucumbers, apples, carrots.
- Chop onion, celery, pepper, and herbs as desired, but not coarsely.
- To make the dressing, chop the garlic and nuts, combine with soy sauce, honey and vegetable oil.
- The salad should be served immediately after dressing.
Dietary properties
Chinese cabbage (the calorie content of Chinese salad is given below in the article) due to its high content of minerals and vitamins is actively used in the diet, helping to quickly regulate the digestive process and launch metabolic activity.
Daily consumption of root vegetables in a low-calorie diet helps not only to lose weight, but also:
- cleanse the blood of toxic substances;
- normalize hematopoiesis;
- prevent the formation of cholesterol plaques and stabilize physical blood pressure indicators;
- due to the large amount of vitamins A and C, it allows you to regulate protein metabolism and stabilize the redox reactions of the body;
- maintain sharpness of vision;
- normalize the functioning of the digestive and excretory systems;
- activate immunity;
- overcome chronic fatigue and anemia;
- relieve the severity and frequency of migraines;
- normalize the functioning of the nervous system;
- enrich the body with potassium, preventing the development of cardiovascular pathologies.
For women, Chinese cabbage not only helps maintain the beauty of their figure, but also, due to the large amount of indamines it contains, promotes the rapid conversion of aggressive estradiol into safe estrogen, thereby preventing the development of breast cancer.
In men, eating Chinese salad during a diet normalizes physical and mental activity, and also stabilizes cholesterol levels and prevents the occurrence of prostate cancer.
Content of vitamins and minerals:
| Elements | Compound |
| Vitamins |
|
| Macro- and microelements |
|
| Mono- and disaccharides | 15,7 |
| Essential amino acids | 0,078 |
| Nonessential amino acids | 0,89 |
| Palmic acid | 0,045 |
| Stearic acid | 0,67 |
| Palmitoleic acid | 0,004 |
| Oleic (omega-9) acid | 0,007 |
| Linoleic acid | 0,017 |
| Linolenic acid | 0,067 |
| Omega-3 fatty acids | 0,056 |
| Omega-6 fatty acids | 0,67 |
During the diet, Chinese salad helps not only stabilize weight, but also cleanse the body of toxic substances and toxins. Due to its antiviral and antiulcer properties, the use of Chinese cabbage is also indicated for people suffering from diabetes and duodenal ulcers.
Despite the abundance of minerals and vitamins, Chinese salad should be consumed in moderation.
Otherwise, an excess of vegetables in the body can lead to the appearance of:
- flatulence;
- belching;
- diarrhea;
- hypothyroidism;
- fatigue;
- hypoglycemia.
It is recommended to include dishes made from fresh Chinese cabbage in your diet, supplementing them with low-calorie vegetables, lean meats and cheese. Normally, Chinese cabbage salad should replace 1-2 snacks or be present together with protein products in one of the main meals.
Chinese salad is contraindicated for patients:
- pancreatitis;
- acute hepatitis;
- with increased acidity of gastric juice.
Not recommended for those suffering from low blood pressure and gastrointestinal hypersensitivity. Breastfeeding mothers should not eat Chinese cabbage due to the possibility of colic in the newborn.
Energy value
The calorie content of Chinese cabbage is about 17 kcal per 100 g of product. Due to its low calorie content, the vegetable is considered one of the root vegetables that have a minus energy value, since to break it down the body uses more energy than it acquires.
Chemical composition:
| Substance | Content |
| Protein | 1.3 g |
| Fats | 0.3 g |
| Carbohydrates | 2.1 g |
| Alimentary fiber | 1.3 g |
| Water | 95 g |
Note to housewives
- It is best to prepare salads in glass or ceramic bowls, stirring with a plastic or wooden spatula. Fresh vegetable juices, released when cutting and stirring, do not like being near metal.
- For slicing, for the same reason, it is worth purchasing a ceramic knife.
- Serve dressed cabbage salad with cucumber no later than 30 minutes after preparation. If you do not season in advance, you can store it in the refrigerator for no more than 2 hours. Otherwise, the dish loses its appearance and taste.
- Recommended serving temperature is 12-16 degrees.
- This salad can be served as a separate dish or as a side dish to a meat, fish or vegetable dish.
