Simply Roasted Cabbage – Southern Bite

This recipe for my lightly roasted cabbage is a deliciously different way to serve one of my favorite vegetables. The high temperature roast brings out great flavor and gives you crispy edges that my family loves!

Cabbage has to be one of my favorite vegetables. Whether it’s fried, boiled, sautéed, or even raw in things like coleslaw, it’s just always been a vegetable I really like.

And we really enjoyed the flavor of roasted veggies like my Roasted Green Beans and Brussels Sprouts, so it just made sense to roast some cabbage as well.

And you all know I’m a big fan of adding flavor at every step and in every way imaginable. While many recipes called for olive oil, I’ve swapped it out for a little bit of liquid gold – bacon grease.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s super tasty with the olive oil, but the bacon fat gives the cabbage that smoky flavor that I love. Can you use olive oil? Absolutely! Is bacon fat better? For sure is.

What is bacon grease and how do I store it?

Simply put, bacon fat is the rendered fat left over from cooking traditional pork bacon. It’s a great way to add flavor to a variety of things — especially veggies. I even make a salad dressing out of it.

Once it’s cooled but still runny, I simply strain it through a coffee filter or strainer straight into a sealable container or jar. Straining loosens the meat residue, which can cause it to go rancid faster.

And while you probably remember your mom or grandma keeping it right on the countertop, from a food safety perspective, it really is better to keep it in the fridge or freezer. It keeps pretty much indefinitely in the freezer – that’s where I keep mine. It can be kept in the fridge for up to a year under proper conditions.

When putting together this recipe, I chose to use the whole head of cabbage to avoid having any raw cabbage. It makes quite a bit and requires two baking sheets. That being said, this recipe scales down perfectly. Half a head of cabbage works just as well. I’m just giving you every opportunity. 😄

When it comes to slicing the cabbage, I prefer to cut off the bottom of the stalk but leave the core of the cabbage intact. It helps hold everything together.

And since I mentioned holding it together… A lot of recipes out there call for you to turn the cabbage about halfway through cooking. I found that quite problematic. Everything just falls apart – even if the core remains intact. It still tastes delicious, but just looks a little messy when it falls apart. Feel free to do it either way.

Have fun!