The year’s ‘it’ vegetable is a versatile, economical wonder

Trends demand both fealty and novelty. Fealty because everyone has to either play along or cry foul. Novelty because there is forever an old trend dissipating and a new one materializing. Cabbage, the workhorse of a cruciferous vegetable recruited in boundless cuisines since perhaps the beginning of time, has been dubbed 2026’s vegetable of the year. Welcome to the churning now, old friend!

“It might be the closest thing to a shelf-stable vegetable we have,” said Joe Yonan, a cookbook author, to Real Simple.