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Jim Dixon wrote about food for WW for more than 20 years, but these days most of his time is spent at his olive oil-focused specialty food business Wellspent Market. Jim’s always loved to eat, and he encourages his customers to cook by sending them recipes every week through his newsletter. We’re happy to have him back creating some special dishes just for WW readers.
Leftovers are my favorite ingredient, and I hate to throw away anything that’s still edible. I was staring at a container of tomatillo queso in the fridge, trying to decide whether I should mix it into polenta, use it to make an extra cheesy version of biscuits and gravy, or just keep eating it with tortilla chips like I’d been doing for a few days. But I’d also been craving cabbage—my favorite vegetable—and I knew there was half a head languishing in the produce drawer.
I cut it into wedges, drizzled them with olive oil, sprinkled on a little seasoning blend, and popped them into a hot oven. When the cabbage was nicely browned, I poured on some of the queso and, just to stay true to the theme, added a handful of crushed tortilla chips. Reader, it was delicious.
But even if you don’t have leftover queso, the roasted cabbage wedges are still tasty. Eat them unadorned or tart them up with your favorite hot sauce, Yemeni-style salsa verde, tahini-yogurt sauce, a fried egg, or whatever else might be lurking in your refrigerator that needs to be eaten. Setting a wedge on top of beans, rice or polenta sounds good, too, and something like that might be my next leftover special.
Recipe
- Half head of green cabbage, sliced into 4 wedges with some core attached
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Kosher-style sea salt
- Freshly ground black pepper*
- Tomatillo queso
- Tortilla chips
*Or use your favorite spices or a blend such as locally made Bobbie’s Boat Sauce or Sebastiano’s Calabrian Chili Garlic salt
Drizzle a tablespoon or so of the olive oil into a 10- or 12-inch skillet or similar baking dish large enough to hold all the cabbage. Set each wedge into the oil, then flip it over so there’s a little on both sides. Sprinkle on the salt and pepper (or the spice blend; if you use one that contains salt, skip the salting step).
Roast at 400 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until the cabbage is nicely browned. While the cabbage cooks, warm a cup or so of the queso and crush a handful of the chips. Transfer the cooked cabbage wedges to a plate, spoon on the queso, and top with the crushed chips.