One of the things I love about eating (mostly) Low Carb, is how the constraint actually sparks creativity in my cooking.
It’s so fun to find new ways to replace our standard grain based ingredients with just as delicious (and in this case even MORE delicious) vegetables.
I have been using raw cabbage leaves as an alternative to tortillas for years now. But it wasn’t until recently that I had the stroke of genius (if I do say so myself) to give the cabbage some TLC.
The first iteration was salting the cabbage which involves just sprinkling the leaves with fine salt and letting them sit while I prepare the rest of the meal. This brings out the flavour AND softens the leaves so they’re easier to wrap around your favourite taco filling.
My latest trick is popping the salted leaves in the oven for 2-3 minutes. This warms and further softens the leaves but not enough that they completely lose their bite.
Talk about a winner. I’d take these over corn or wheat based tortillas any (and every) day of the week 🙂
Salted Cabbage Tortillas
Instructions
- Turn your oven to 200C (400F).
- Trim cabbage to remove 2-3 outer leaves. Chop your cabbage in half so you have 2 wedges. Chop on the diagonal of the centre part to remove the tough core of the cabbage. Discard the core.
- Separate the cabbage into individual leaves, placing them on a large flat oven tray as you go.
- Sprinkle salt over the cabbage and pop in the oven for 2-3 minutes. Or until the cabbage is warm and just starting to wilt and soften to your liking. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Nutrition
Variations & Substitutions
different vegetables – any cabbage will work. You could also do something similar with kale or collard greens or chard (silverbeet) or rainbow chard. The chard won’t need very long to cook.
Low FODMAP – use red, white or chinese cabbage but not savoy (napa) cabbage. And only serve 75g (3oz) cabbage per person.
more fancy / for entertaining – serve with fresh herbs like mint, coriander (cilantro), parsley or tarragon for colour.
more substantial – try these low carb Zucchini Tortillas instead.
Ideas to use your ‘Tortillas’
Anywhere you’d normally serve flat bread or tortillas.
- Quick Taco Bowls with Lime & Cashew ‘Sour Cream’
- Fish ‘Tacos’ with Easy Coriander Hot Sauce
- Smoky Cauli Taco Bowls
- Smoky Mexican Sausages
- Taco Tuesday Bowls
- Quick Beef Tacos
- Fish Tacos
- Mexican Omelette with Smashed Avo
- Smoky Mexican Sausages
Waste Avoidance Strategy
cabbage – will keep in a plastic bag in the fridge for weeks, even months. Can be frozen but will have a wilted texture once defrosted.
Problem Solving Guide
bland –Â add more flavoursome accompaniments.
hard to eat –Â Â next time cook them slightly longer. Also if the cabbage has large tough veins in some pieces you may like to cut these out and discard them.
Prepare Ahead
You can but I prefer them when freshly made. Just cook as per the recipe. Leftovers will keep in the fridge for up to 1 week. Don’t freeze. To serve, allow to come back to room temperature or pop back in the oven for another few minutes.
Add to my Old Favourite Recipes
Using cabbage leaves in place of tortillas is a great addition to easy whole meals. I like no longer needing fresh tortillas to create a meal that is delicious and healthful This may be Jules suggestion, but putting the half cabbage in very warm salted water for a couple minutes before seperating them is so helpful. Salted cabbage ‘tortillas’ are a great creative whole food solution to purchased tortillas. I really like this!
Fantastic Kasey! The water soaking was Susan’s idea. 🙂
I made fish tacos again with these. This time I salted the cabbage and grilled the cabbage leaves to get a little char on them. (eliminated the oven). They were great. Need to watch carefully as they grill quickly. Absolutely delish!
Yum Joan!
In case others have difficulty peeling off cabbage leaves I’d like to share the technique I learned when making cabbage rolls: bring a large pot of water to a boil and put the cabbage into it (very carefully!) with the stem up. Let the water come back to a boil, then remove the cabbage and peel off as many leaves as come off easily. Repeat the process until you have what you need. This does start the cooking process, which softens them. They can then be salted and warmed up in the oven. If anyone has other suggestions, I’d love to hear them.
Thanks Susan!
These are officially my favourite low-carb tortilla replacement. Although my cabbage tonigh was very dense and difficult to separate into individual leaves. So ended up with more fragments that whole
Leaves. But still tasted excellent 🙂
I agree that this is ingenuous – just a cautionary note that the color from the purple cabbage rubbed off on my fingers 🙂
Good to know April! I got a purple cabbage at the farmers market today so will be careful 🙂
Seriously, how do you think of this? I can’t even imagine using tortilla again. If there was a choice, I would definitely pick these over tortillas. They are still crunchy but do not taste raw. That 3 min in the oven is the trick.
I made fish tacos for dinner. Used the remaining piece of cabbage to make a slaw for the tacos with mayo, siracha cider vinegar cilantro leaves. YUMMY.
Fantastic Joan! So glad you enjoyed 🙂