Skillet Cabbage

I'm sure I could have found a better name for this dish but, yea...it's cabbage made in a skillet, lol.  I must be honest...as a kid, well into adulthood, I DETESTED cabbage.  I was used to cabbage being prepared with smoked meat that was cooked down for hours and essentially, mushy.  It was kind of bland and just wasn't appetizing to me.  As I got older and widened my palate, I began sampling other cuisines and stumbled upon Jamaican stir-fried cabbage.  HELLO!  Where had this been all my life!!!??!?!?  Flavorful, wonderfully fresh and crisp but tender.  I needed to figure out how to make this for myself.  I tinkered around with it for awhile before I got it to my liking.  And now, cabbage hold a dear place in my heart...and I'm going to share how to make them have a place in yours.

Now, I must give a small disclaimer.  I have been known on more than a few occasions to start these cabbage off with bacon.  EVERYTHING is better with a little bacon, lol.  A dear friend is on a meatless fast and asked for this recipe so I will be giving it using just veg, but I would be doing you all a great disservice to not mention that bacon seals these cabbage with love, lol.

Now on to business...

These are essentially the bulk of your ingredients.  Above starting from the top right are two stalks of celery, three carrots, one green bell pepper, a cubanelle pepper, a red jalapeno, half of a purple onion and one and a half heads of cabbage.  The trick is slicing everything as thin as possible.  As you can see above these thing aren't exactly razor thin, but you don't want large pieces.  Also, the process is MUCH easier if you slice everything up before you start cooking so that you transition to each step smoothly.

You want to start by sauteeing your onions, all three peppers, carrots and celery in a couple of shakes of olive oil. I use a large heavy bottomed skillet with a medium high heat. Salt them to season them and help them begin to soften.  You only want to cook them for about 5-7 mins...they should still have some firmness. Next add some red pepper flakes...about a teaspoon.  This is enough to add flavor but not an exponetial amount of heat. You will have some brown bits at the bottom of the pan.  Add a little red wine vinegar...about a fourth of a cup.  Now, I must warn you to stand back when you add the vinegar to the hot pan...the fumes can be overwhelming.  Use a spatula to scrap those bits up as they will flavor the vinegar.  This liquid mixture will begin the base liquid that you will cook your cabbage in.  Next you want to start adding your cabbage.  You may find that trying to add all of your raw cabbage to the skillet is difficult so you may have to do this a little at a time.  I find it easiest to fill up the pan, salt it just a bit, stir the warm contents from the bottom of the pan on to the top of the raw cabbage, place a lid on the skillet and allow the liquid to steam it down some and repeat until all the cabbage is in.  Once you've wilted everything down add about 24 ounces, or 3 cups, of low sodium chicken broth.  I like to add a few banana pepper rings along with about a fourth of a cup of the juice from the pepper jar to add some layers to the flavor. I throw in a couple bay leaves for flavor but feel free to play around with whatever herbs you like...thyme would be really good here also. You also want to check the cooking liquid and make sure it's seasoned properly. This is important because this is what you're veggies are cooking in so if it isn't well seasoned, your veggies won't be either. Salt it to you're liking, add coarse ground black pepper and a tablespoon of sugar.  This will balance the savory and enhance the natural sweetness of the vegetable but in no way will you're cabbage be "sweet". Cut you're heat down to medium or medium low, place the lid back on and let them simmer for 45 minutes to an hour. They're pretty low maintenance meaning you don't have to babysit them...just check them occasionally because the liquid is going to cook out until it's just about gone and you don't want to burn the contents of the skillet.  And that's it.  Once everything is your desired tenderness, you're ready to eat!!!  Don't forget that these cabbage and veggies cook up pretty quick because they're cut a bit on the small side.  If you prefer bigger pieces, that's perfectly fine...just allow a few more minutes for cooking.

I hope this helps and if you have any questions please comment below...I'll also give a list of what I used to make gathering ingredients a wee bit easier...Happy eating Lovies!

Grocery List

2 green cabbages, slice 1 and 1 half

2 celery stalks, trimmed and cleaned

3 carrots, peeled

1 purple onion, halved

1 green pepper

1 cubanelle pepper

1 jalapeno pepper (if you don't like jalapenos, any pepper will work or just double up on the bell peppers)

A forkful of banana peppers and juice

24 ounces low sodium chicken broth

2 bay leaves

Kosher salt

Coarse ground black pepper

Red wine vinegar (any vinegar will work)

Olive oil