Don’t stick your nose up at the humble cabbage because braised cabbage, with carrots and onion, deserves high praise. The long, low heat cooking draws out the sweetness of the cabbage, carrots and onions while making it deliciously soft. Taking the foil off at the end and upping the heat produces nicely browned edges. It truly is delicious. We have made this recipe for years and like it so much we will often eat most of a pan ourselves!
This is a wonderful example of how a cooking method can produce superior results. And might I add that these ingredients are frugal as well as nourishing?
This is the recipe I have chosen to showcase from the cookbook, All about Braising by Molly Stevens. This book has some of the most wonderful sounding, slow cookin’ goodness recipes. From vegetable to beef, to chicken, to fish, this book has a wide variety of dishes. Most of the recipes are quite easy to put together they just need oven time. Slow cooked meals are perfect for this time of year. She also has very easy to follow directions, which is always greatly appreciated.
My notes to this recipe: Definitely follow the directions for the size of cabbage to use. If you use too big of one, it will not cook correctly.
World’s Best Braised Cabbage, Revised from the recipe by Molly Stevens
1 medium head green cabbage (about 2 pounds)
1 large yellow onion (about 8 ounces)
3-6 garlic cloves, peeled
4-5 large carrots, cut into 1/4 inch rounds (cut on a diagonal for a prettier vegetable slice)
1/4 cup chicken, beef, or vegetable broth, or water
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, or to taste
Fleur de sel or coarse unrefined sea salt
1-Heat the oven to 325. Lightly oil a large gratin dish or a baking dish (9 by 13 inch works well).
2-Trimming the cabbage: Remove any outer leaves of the cabbage that is bruised or ragged. If your cabbage is more than 2 pounds, cut off some of the cabbage to make it two pounds for best braising. Cut the cabbage into 8 wedges and then lay in the baking dish. They can overlay slightly, and still cook, but try to do as much of a single layer as possible.
3-The Braise: Scatter over the cabbage the onion, garlic, and carrots. Then pour over the vegetables, evenly, the oil and the broth or water. Season liberally with salt, pepper, and the pepper flakes. Cover the pan tightly with foil, and place in the middle of the oven. Braise until the vegetables are completely tender, about two hours. Then turn the wedges over (they may fall apart a bit when you do this, and that’s okay. If the dish is getting dry, add a couple more tablespoons of water or broth.
4-The finish: Once the cabbage is completely cooked and tender (a fork should pierce it easily), remove the foil, and increase the oven heat to 400f. Roast until the vegetables start to brown (about 15 minutes).
For added oomph, she recommends adding some balsamic vinegar when you are turning the cabbage before roasting. Yum!
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Turned out bland and greasy, and with 2 hours of electricity for the oven time, not so economical. I would not make this again.
Hm, your comment reminds me of the old Sesame Street “One of These Things is Not Like the Other” segments….. Given that every single other comment is positive, methinks it’s your fault this turned out poorly, not the recipe’s…..
Or perhaps this recipe is not to everyone’s liking.
I made this tonight and it is so delicious both my boyfriend and I could have easily devoured the whole 2 lbs ourselves! I didn’t really measure out anything other than the broth, everything else was guess work, but it was amazing! We omitted the carrots this time because I was serving beets as well, but next they will definitely be added. Thank you so much for this recipe, it is going to be a regular meal at our home.
I should also note that I added the balsamic vinegar, delicious!
How many will this feed?
Delicious! In the last two years I have prepared a lot of cabbage since I receive some nearly weekly from my CSA. I found our favourite coleslaw and some great stew, I discovered colcannon, and here we are, I found our favorite braised cabbage recipe. It is way above average. I may do this recipe again in a few days to use the 2nd cabbage still in my fridge. Simply delicious! Note that I did not use balsamic vinegar this first time. It will feed easily 4 to 6 people, or just two if you can’t keep you fork out of the dish!
I start this by saying that I am a capable, but not exceptional, cook. Maybe I did something wrong, or my cabbage was not ideal, but my family just thought this was plain old cooked cabbage, only it smelled up the house for a much longer period of time. It was perfectly edible and tasted fine, but there are cooking methods that don’t take this long to get the same result, including stovetop Dutch oven methods. Thanks for posting it so I could give it a try.
Not having tried every recipe for braised cabbage, I can’t definitely say this is THE best. It is, however, really delicious. I was a little pressed for time so I started it at 340 and roasted it for about an hour & 1/4 rather than 2. Used the balsamic and extra carrots – would use even more next time. Very easy and very good!
My 3rd or 4th time with this great dish. –hint–if you cut carefully you can leave the base
of the cabbage attached to the segment. Makes it much neater to flip later.
I LOVE THIS DISH!!!! I have shared this recipe with most of my friends….who all agree, it’s the BEST CABBAGE EVER!!!! I love carrots, so I add 5-8. I eat leftovers cold…straight from the fridge! Thanks for sharing!
So I made this tonight so I could reheat it tomorrow….yeah, going to have to make more tomorrow.
Made this for dinner tonight… Was delicious!!!
Will make this again and again but I’ll add more sliced carrots and sliced onions…
Note… I made this a meal by sautéing sliced kielbasa and adding it to the cabbage, carrots and onions for the last 1/2 hour of cooking.
Delicious!!!
We had this for dinner tonight and what a treat. Delicious! It will certainly become a staple at our house. Since there are only two of us, a large cabbage can be halved to include cole slaw. The braised cabbage, cole slaw and cornbread made a great meal. Easy on the pocketbook too. I also added some slices of smoked sausage. Thanks so much for the recipe.
Today I did the World’s Best Braised Cabbage EVER
and the came out Awesome tender and juicy .
thanks who ever posted this .
Making corned beef and cabbage for a crowd and didn’t have room for everything in my 2 crackpots which is how I usually cook it. I am planning on doing the carrots, cabbage, and onion in the oven using this recipe. It occurs to me that the next time I make it for just my own family, I will use this recipe plus he corned beef in the pot and braise it all together.
OMG!! This is the best thing ever!! I have been looking for a dish to compliment Apple Chicken Sausage and this was incredible with it! Thanks soooo much! Amazing!
I made this tonight to accompany crockpot corned beef as an early St. Patrick’s dinner. The cabbage was fabulous! My husband and daughter loved it. I’m not a big fan of cabbage but I ate it and enjoyed it. The balsamic made a big difference. It was beautifully caramelized and sweet. I also grated some fresh nutmeg over the cabbage along with the salt & pepper. Doubtful I will make cabbage another way again. Thank you for a great recipe 🙂
Hi made this with corn beef. It was so delicious!!!!! The balsamic was a perfect touch. Can’t wait to make with steak on the grilll. A great and different side!!!!
A go to! Making it today with pork belly a la Jamie Oliver. I never change a bit in this recipe. All flavors stand alone and taste fresh.
I love cooked cabbage anyway but this was very delicious! I. Had some red cabbage as well so used half green, half red. My husband and I had seconds and look forward to eating it again.
Great!
Sounds delicious. My sister makes something like this on the grill. My question is why does it take so long to cook/braise? I definitely want to try, but I usually don’t bake anything in the oven that I need it on for that long. Thanks