For the cabbage-haters

In our winter CSA, we’ve been getting cabbage. Lots of cabbage.

I love raw cabbage on all sorts of things (like BBC tacos) but sadly, raw cabbage doesn’t always love me.

So I thought I’d give roasting a try. And wow, am I glad I did. This is such a ridiculously simple dish to make but so tasty. The key here is maple syrup – I’m confident that you can do no wrong with maple syrup (the real stuff – not sugarbombinaplasticbottle syrup). It’s my go-to ingredient when roasting pretty much anything. The beauty of this dish is you can mix up practically any sauce or dressing to serve with it after roasting. I went with a simple ginger-garlic sauce to lend an Asian flavor but the sky’s the limit. And this stuff can feed quite a few mouths (or just a few mouths many times).

Now, I know some of you probably do not hold cabbage in high regard and are raising your brow in doubt. Maybe cabbage made a bad first impression on you when you were a wee lass (or lad), and horrible memories of being forced to clear your plate of icky boiled cabbage have haunted you for years.

But give this a try. I promise you won’t regret it.

And if you do, I don’t mind taking any and all cabbage off your hands.

 

Simple Balsamic Roasted Cabbage

Materials

Roasted Cabbage

8-10 servings, depending on how hungry you are

• 1 head red cabbage
• 1 head green cabbage
• 1/4 cup  + 2 tablespoons maple syrup
• 1/8 cup balsamic vinegar

Ginger-Garlic Sauce

* for 8 servings

Methods

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Slice/shred both heads of cabbage into ribbons.

2.Combine maple syrup & balsamic vinegar and mix with cabbage.

3. Lightly spray baking pan with cooking oil (I used olive oil).

4. Spread cabbage onto pan- it will be a fairly thick pile. The larger the pan the better, or you could always divide the mixture between 2 pans.

Drizzle the other 2 tablespoons of maple syrup on top.

5. Place pan into preheated oven and roast for ~45 minutes, stirring mixture around about every 15-20 minutes to ensure even cooking.

6. Prep serving sauce: mix ginger, garlic and maple syrup. Spoon over roasted cabbage.

Serve with rice, your protein of choice or just enjoy it all by itself!

Results & Conclusions

Mixed with jasmine rice, this dish was just plain yummy. How’s that for a sophisticated foodie description?

Yummy.

The cabbage holds onto just a bit of crunch, lending a satisfying contrast in texture – better?

This is an excellent healthy substitute when you’re craving guilty-pleasure-Chinese-takeout, with the bonus that you’ll finally use up that cabbage that’s been staring at you forlornly from the depths of your fridge.

So, go forth and roast, my friends.