So easy to make and can hold its own on a full table.

All this side dish needs to make it perfect is a good char on the cabbage and some sweet roasted red pepper in the sauce.

The red pepper sauce couldn’t be quicker to make and once made, keeps well in an airtight container.

Don’t limit this sauce to just the cabbage, drizzle it over green beans or even bring it out and have it as a dip for some crudités when family and friends arrive.

This side dish is all about the char on the cabbage and that’s an easy thing to do if you’re patient and aren’t tempted to turn the cabbage over.

And if there’s no cabbage in your cupboard, try using quarters of lettuce instead

Go on, give it a go and enjoy your sweet life!

What You Need

2 Small Sweetheart Cabbage
150g Red Roasted Sweet Peppers – See Tip Box
50g Sliced Toasted Almonds – See Tip Box
10g Fresh Parsley
2tbsp Olive Oil
Zest and Juice of 1 lime
1 Garlic Clove Garlic Clove
Salt and Pepper to taste

To Cook the Cabbage

50g Butter
1 Tbsp Olive Oil

To Decorate

25g Sliced Almonds – Toasted – See Tip Box

How It’s Done

Place all of the sliced almonds into a dry frying pan and heat on a low to medium heat until some of the slices go brown. Shaking the pan occasionally so they don’t burn – See Tip Box
Once toasted, remove from the hot pan and set aside until needed
Place the roasted peppers, 50g sliced almonds, parsley, olive oil, the juice and zest of the lime, and garlic clove in to an electric blender and blend until smooth.
Give it a taste and add salt and pepper to suit your taste, give it another blend – See Tip Box
Set aside until needed.
Remove any unusable outer leaves of the cabbage and cut off most of the hard stalk
Cut the cabbages in half (if very large, cut them into four pieces) and using a sharp knife cut out a piece of the stalk in the shape of a V in each of the halves. – See Tip Box
Sit the halved cabbage pieces in a bowl of salted water for ten minutes, and once removed, sit the cabbage, cut side down on paper kitchen towels so that all the water is absorbed and the cabbages are dry before cooking.
To cook the cabbage, place 50g butter and 1 tbsp of olive oil in a frying pan and melt on a medium heat.
Once the butter has melted, place the cut cabbage, cut side down, into the pan and let it cook until it turns a deep dark colour – this will take time so don’t rush it and don’t turn the cabbage over. – The cabbage should have a very heavy char on one side and be soft in the middle when a skew is pushed into it. – See Tip Box

Once cooked through, carefully remove the cabbage from the pan onto a serving dish, drizzle over the pepper sauce and garnish with more toasted almonds if you want to

Tip Box

Roasted Red Pepper – I use both home-made roasted peppers for the sauce and ones I’ve bought from the supermarket. Either works really well and for me, the deciding factor is how much time and energy I want to out into a dish
Cooking the cabbage – 1) Cut out a V - Once the cabbages have been cut in half, cutting a piece the shape of a V out of the stalk will help the hard stalk cook all the way through.

2) Cooking the cabbage is an easy process, but it just requires patience and a brave heart to let the cabbage sit without playing with it too much. The cabbage should have a really heavy char on the cut side and be soft when cut into. This could take up to 15 minutes (timings will vary)

Seasoning to taste – Some people like more salt than others, so seasoning to taste means adjusting the seasoning so that will enjoy it. With salt, only add a very small amount to start with, as the sauce sits it will become more concentrated. Once salt is in its impossible to take out.
Toasting the almond slices – Don’t walk away while toasting the almond slices. It can take just a moment for the nuts to go from a perfect colour to burnt. If the almonds are burnt they will taste bitter and spoil the sauce.

Hi.

Jun 19 Charred Cabbage with Red Pepper Sauce

Hi.

Jun 19 Charred Cabbage with Red Pepper Sauce

Jun 19 Creamy Paprika Pasta

Jun 18 Herbed Giant Couscous