For Cabbage With An Extra Kick, Make It Bloody Mary-Style

In reality, cabbage is a versatile, delicious vegetable that can brighten up a wide variety of dishes, but its reputation is not always the best. When it's cooked for too long — a common mistake when cooking cabbage — its smell can be pungent and overpowering, but the resulting food can be bland and unappealing. But if you have a negative association of flavorless, watery cabbage, there is a way to add a blast of extra flavor the next time you're making a cabbage-based recipe: add some Bloody Mary mix. 

While the pairing of Bloody Mary mix and cabbage might not immediately spring to mind, it's not so wild when you think about it. Pre-made Bloody Mary mix has ingredients that include tomato concentrate, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, onion powder, and garlic powder. Meanwhile, many cabbage recipes, such as our Turkish stuffed cabbage, call for tomatoes, garlic, onion, and some bold spices, so the flavor profiles are not too dissimilar.

People online have particularly sung the praises about adding this spicy, tomato-y mix to stuffed cabbage. One user posted about hamburger-stuffed cabbage that uses Mr. & Mrs. T's Bloody Mary mix to enhance the tomato flavor. Another recommended it as a replacement to V8 in a stuffed cabbage recipe, "Especially if you like it a little zingy."

While stuffed cabbage may be the most popular option for Bloody Mary mix, there are other recipes that can use it as well. In response to a post asking about what to do with leftover Bloody Mary, one Redditor said, "Autumn soup would be perfect," and provided a recipe including ground beef, diced onion, celery, carrots, plus "the Bloody Mary mix and a head of cabbage chopped up. Bring to a boil then turn down to a simmer and cook down."

Another social media user shared a picture of a successful cabbage roll casserole that uses the mix, saying "It was delicious." And yet another recommends a cabbage stew, saying, "If you haven't used Bloody Mary mix in a recipe instead of regular tomato juice with your own spices then you're missing out." These all sound like potentially appealing options — just make sure you're using the best kinds of cabbage to roast.

And by the way, if you can't get enough of this flavor combination, you might consider adding cabbage — specifically sauerkraut — to your next Bloody Mary cocktail. There are a few variations — with names such as the Wisco Bloody and the Kraut Bloody Mary – that call for mixing some sauerkraut juice in along with the tomato juice and alcohol, proving once again that Bloody Mary and cabbage are a match made in heaven.