Can you tell radicchio and red cabbage apart? Are radicchio and red cabbage the same thing? Are they different vegetables? What is the difference between radicchio and red cabbage and how can you tell them apart?
Read on to find out more about radicchio and red cabbage.
Are radicchio and red cabbage the same thing?
If you’ve had red cabbage before, but not radicchio, you might think radicchio is another type of red cabbage.
Similarly, if you’ve had radicchio before, but never had red cabbage, you might also think they’re the same vegetable.
But they’re not. Even though they look very much alike, to some even indistinguishable, radicchio and red cabbage are not at all the same thing.
What is radicchio?
Is radicchio a red cabbage? Radicchio may look like a smaller, magenta-red cabbage, but it’s not a cabbage at all. Radicchio is in fact a type of chicory, common chicory to be more exact.
The botanical name is Cichorium intybus. See my guide to chicory greens and endives, with pictures.
Radicchio is consumed for its leaves which makes it a leaf vegetable – this is also why it’s referred to as a leaf-chicory or salad-chicory.
Because it’s a popular vegetable in Italian cuisine, radicchio is also commonly called Italian chicory in English. Most commonly, it’s eaten as a salad vegetable. Find out more about what is radicchio.
What is red cabbage?
Red cabbage is a variety of cabbage. It’s a different vegetable altogether from radicchio – botanically, red cabbage is known as Brassica oleracea.
Despite its common name referencing its color as ‘red’, red cabbage is not always red, or actually red.
Red cabbage is actually more magenta than red, that is, a purple-red color.
But it comes in other colors too.
Red cabbage can be a deep, dark purple color, or purple with reddish veins. Or it can be a bluish purple or even bluish-green.
The pH of the soil it grows in is what determines its color – anthocyanins, the natural pigments that give red cabbage its color, are pH-sensitive and, as a result, can appear different colors. Red cabbage is also commonly called purple cabbage if it’s purple instead of red.
What does radicchio look like vs red cabbage?
Radicchio is one of several varieties of common chicory and comes in several shapes and sizes.
The type of radicchio that looks like a red cabbage is the ‘radicchio di Chioggia’ or ‘Chioggia radicchio’.
The Chioggia radicchio is cabbaged-shaped, with dense, meaty and crisp, tightly packed magenta leaves with snow-white veins, sometimes lightly tinged with a yellowish green.
It’s usually half the size of a medium red cabbage, or smaller.
Other varieties of radicchio don’t look like a red cabbage at all.
For example, the Treviso radicchio looks like a magenta and white Belgian endive, while the tardivo radicchio looks like a lightbulb with leaves that curl inwards at the top.
The Castelfranco radicchio on the other hand looks more like a green salad, like a chicory salad (it’s actually a cross between red radicchio and broad-leaved endive or escarole).
As for red cabbage, it’s a lot bigger than radicchio, often several times bigger, and comes in more colors than just magenta. Red cabbage can be a magenta-red color, but it can also be a deep, dark purple or a bluish purple, or even a bluish green, or magenta with some blue-green exterior leaves. The color is determined by the pH of the soil which affects the pigments in the cabbage. Red cabbage also has tightly-packed, crisp, meaty leaves, and snow-white veins and stalk.
In their natural state, the outermost leaves of both radicchio and red cabbages are spread outwards like the petals of a flower. Often times, the outer leaves are cleaned off and discarded before the vegetables reach the produce section. Either that, or the vegetables are harvested before they reach maturity.
What does radicchio taste like vs red cabbage?
Technically, radicchio and red cabbage should taste differently. That is, radicchio should taste bitter, and also quite peppery, but markedly bitter nonetheless.
Red cabbage on the other hand should taste mildly bitter, with pleasant, but not marked peppery notes, nice cruciferous flavors and a faint sweetness to it.
But that’s not always the case. In fact, young radicchios are usually barely bitter, or almost bland-tasting.
And a lot of people like them that way.
Only mature radicchio is actually bitter tasting and evidently peppery in flavor.
As for red cabbage, most of what’s available commercially is mild-tasting at most. Red cabbage is typically barely bitter and peppery due to the fact that it’s harvested before it reaches full maturity so as to not taste too pregnant and put off consumers.
The stalk is usually the only somewhat peppery part. Sweet flavor notes are more evident in younger red cabbages, and there’s a cruciferous aroma as well, also present in broccoli, broccolini and cauliflower.
Depending on the age of the vegetables at harvest time, the leaves may be either crisp and tender, or tougher, woody even in the case of red cabbage.
Both cooked radicchio and red cabbage taste milder than their raw versions. Cooked radicchio is less bitter and less peppery, while cooked red cabbage is much sweeter, and also less bitter.
Also see Foods That Look Alike: Oroblanco Sweetie and White Grapefruit
