There it sits: a lonely head of cabbage that didn’t quite make it into the St. Patrick’s Day colcannon. If it doesn’t get used soon, it’ll wilt and go to waste and my Irish ancestors will grumble from beyond the grave.
Fear not, great-grandparents! It’s entirely possible to put that cabbage to its highest use and get multiple meals out of it. Read on for ideas on how to make five (five!) different dishes that start with a humble head of cabbage.
Writer Stacey Ballis devised this sequence of recipes for myrecipes.com. Her first hint for making the most out of an ingredient? Make the first dish the most involved and go from there.
Ballis went with stuffed cabbage rolls for her first, fussiest dish. It makes sense — the rolls include a bunch of go-anywhere, do-anything ingredients like turkey sausage, crushed tomatoes and mirepoix.
She made a little more than she needed for a meal and saved the excess for another night. Ballis also prepped the rest of the cabbage by roasting it until just cooked. After cooling, it went into the fridge for future use.
If you like to do one big meal prep session at the beginning of the week, this is the day to make a sauce for the next night’s dinner: roasted cabbage wedges with sauce and cheese! Ballis suggests a hearty ragu or a curry. (Of course, you can make this day-of, as well.)
Send up a cheer: Day three is pasta night! This is where those reserved cabbage rolls come in. Cut them up and add to sautéed onion to heat, then top as you wish (Ballis has some suggestions) and toss with pasta.
A classic chicken bake uses up a couple more cabbage wedges on day four. It’s super easy — just toss the wedges in a baking dish with drained chickpeas and chopped onion, then top with chicken thighs. Season and bake. Boom. Done.
Finally, it’s fried rice. Homemade fried rice is already a fun way to repurpose leftovers. Toss in whatever you have left of your cabbage wedges to add a vegetal crunch to your fave rice recipe.
Of course, if some of these dishes don’t sound pleasing to your palate or if ingredients are scarce, you can sub out with cabbage soup or put cabbage in an easy frittata.
We’re here! We made it! A whole work-week with that one beautiful cabbage! Click here to read the full article, with links to the recipes.
This story originally appeared on Simplemost. Checkout Simplemost for additional stories.
