This is one of those dishes that I made after coming home thinking “What can I possibly eat for dinner?” and opening the fridge for inspiration. I don’t keep a whole lot of ingredients in my fridge other than vegetables and cheese, and lots of dishes require more planning (soaking beans, thawing frozen chicken, etc) than I was ready for. However, it was slightly damp out and I felt like roasting something, and I figured that cabbage and cheddar would go well together, so I did what I usually do and asked the Internet what it thought.
(The way that I cook is to decide what ingredient/s to use, and then ask my cookbooks or the Internet for some inspiration: books for general ideas, the Internet for more specific suggestions about ratios and additions, etc. It seems to work pretty well for me, still learning cooking techniques and combinations.)
Turns out cabbage gratin is an actual thing, but I didn’t have any milk, and besides I wanted something crispy rather than a casserole (I think I may have something against casseroles. Maybe I will like them in the winter). Fortunately Whole Foods had a few easily adaptable good ideas for additions.
Basically this is roasted cabbage with some melted cheddar and a few extras: mustard for flavor and cornmeal for texture.
Cheesy Roasted Cabbage Cabbage (about 1/3 of a large head was good for me for dinner) Olive oil and salt 1/2 cup cheddar 2 tsp mustard, or to taste Maybe 1/4 cornmeal Pepper Other herbs! Such as parsley
Preheat oven to around 400ºF. Chop cabbage up, mix with a little salt and oil and put in a pan in the oven while you prep the rest of the ingredients. Grate the cheese and wash/chop the parsley. After the cabbage has roasted a little while by itself (maybe 20 minutes), mix in about half the cheese and the other ingredients. Add a little water if you need to (the Whole Foods recipe has you use chicken broth, which I think would be good—I just didn’t feel like something soggy). Roast about 15 minutes longer, then add the rest of the cheese on top and bake until crispy on top (maybe another 10 minutes, although I was getting a little impatient at that point). Serve hot.
Dancing Tree Kitchen 