I’m not sure why I get a specific vegetable obsessions from time to time, but lately I have been eating a lot of red cabbage. I’ve always not minded cabbage. I love cabbage rolls and corned beef with cabbage but lately I’ve really been appreciating red cabbage especially when it is cooked until just tender but still has a bit of a crunch. When cooked this way, it has a sweetness but also a veggie-ness that I’m really loving right now.
My red cabbage affair started a couple weeks ago when I had some left over from taco night and needed to use it. I was grilling chicken and other veggies and I cut cross-sections of the remaining red cabbage, put some olive oil, salt, and pepper on it and it was so good after being grilled. Since then, I’ve experimented with applying various rubs or glazes on cross-sections of the cabbage before grilling or roasting it (side note: cabbage will grill or roast fairly quickly, on a grill or in a 350 degree oven my cooking time has been anywhere between 5-15min). Besides the simple olive oil, salt, and pepper application my favorite thing has been applying mustard in various ways to the outside before cooking. Dijon by itself is great. Dijon and honey together is good but might be a little sweet combined with the cabbage to some. Spicy mustard is excellent. My next move is to either braise or marinate and grill the cabbage in beer, Worcestershire, a dash of mustard, and I’m thinking about adding a bit of red pepper flakes along with some salt of course (I’m thinking chopping and braising is what I’ll try since I’ve already grilled it quite a bit). Oh red cabbage!… how you intrigue me. You can bore me to death in salads sometimes yet excite the hell out of me in general.