Asian Vegetables for Winter

Chinese cabbage, also known as napa or celery cabbage, have a texture and bulk similar to romaine lettuce. Leaves often have a ruffled surface like a savoy cabbage. The best salad types have very open heads and are often a pale green to fading yellow in the center. Other kinds are closely related to the napa-type, with outer leaves that are slightly hairy.

Flowering white cabbage or choy sum are from the turnip family. Though the tender young flower shoots of any of the Asian brassicas can be delicious, choy sum types have been developed especially for their flower stalks and buds. There are even purple-stemmed varieties for a different look.

Chinese mustard can look different, depending on the type. Some form tight heads or swollen edible stems; others are leafy and similar to the mustard greens grown in our southern states. Mustard spinach or komatsuna grow about 18 inches high and wide. Their young leaves are used in salads or cooked like spinach or mustard.

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