Old Europeans used to make comfort food using noodles and cabbage. This dish holds benefits for the health as well also it serves for a hearty meal liked by most people. The type of noodles used and method adapted for cooking this dish establishes its nutritional content. If you want to keep it healthy you will need to add your own twist to the dish and use whole-grain pasta in place of processed pasta. Though some dishes made with cabbage and noodles need bacon or some other kind of pork to be included as well what you need to do is to customize the dish and make it vegetarian instead. What will happen is that now your dish will be low in fat content.
Noodle type:
What type of noodles is used in your dish determines its characteristics. By the tradition, it’s the egg noodles that make the base of cabbage and noodles dish. Most of the pasta we use in our routinely meals are made up of these simple ingredients: flour water and salt. When eggs are added to the recipe egg noodles are formed. This addition will add fat and calorie content of the noodles. If you want to keep the calories and fat content low, you must replace egg noodles with whole wheat spaghetti noodles. This will also provide more fiber to the dish. If you want to further decrease the fat and calorie content use Japanese soba noodles.
Nutrition of the Noodle:
A single cup of egg noodles have 221 calories and almost 3.3 grams of fat whereas, a cup of whole wheat spaghetti noodles have 174 of calories and fats lesser than 1 gram. Japanese soba noodles have even lesser quantities of both these with 113 calories on each serving and are almost fat free. Egg noodles are best as a source of iron as these provide 13 percent of your recommended daily intake. Spaghetti type noodles provide 8 percentof it.
Iron is necessary for the transportation of oxygen through out your body. It is also vital for maintaining growth of the cell tells ‘The National Institutes of Health Office of Dietary Supplements’.
Nutrition of the Cabbage:
Every half cup of cooked cabbage contains only 15 calories. It is a very low calorie and fat free food. It is also a good source of vitamin C also provides little amounts of vitamin A. It provides 25 percent of daily recommended amount of vitamin C in an average diet of 2,000 calories. Vitamin C is a necessary antioxidant , it fights free radicals and help power the immune system. Also necessary for healthy tissues,teeth and bones.
Method of Cooking:
Best way to cook cabbage is braising that is tenderize it without adding a lot of fat.
Simmering it and then steaming it in a mixture of apple juice and water with onions. If you want to make a sweet and sour dish you can add apple cider vinegar to this liquid. When you see the cabbage tender, drain rest of the liquid and introduce already cooked pasta.A typically cooked with onions, raisins and spaghetti cup has 225 calories.