Cabbage and Cheddar Gratin

Two years ago I didn’t think I had any use for cabbage, except for an occasional garnish on fish tacos.  I was participating in an CSA that year, I got a head of cabbage in my bag and had no idea what to do with it.  We don’t even like coleslaw.  I did some recipe googling and finally found a recipe that sounded okay and wasn’t a slaw on Whole Food’s website.  I still didn’t think we’d really like it, but the saving grace of the recipe was that it contained cheese, so I gave it a shot.  And we LOVED it.  We both thought it tasted a little like hashbrowns, which makes no sense at all, so I think it’s the seasoning.  We liked it so much that we made another batch 2 days later with the other half of the cabbage.  My suggestion is to just double the recipe in the first place – what in the heck are you going to do with a half a head of cabbage anyway?

I’ve made it several times since, including Thanksgiving last year, and when Lo saw me writing this post he told me that he wanted this – now.  I doubled the recipe for you below because it’s that good.  I ate it for breakfast once.  And I want it now too.

An aside….I tried to grow cabbage in our garden this year, but something ate all three heads.  I won’t bother next year – cabbage is cheap and plentiful enough to buy at a market instead.

Cabbage and Cheddar Gratin
adapted from Whole Foods

• 2 1/2 cups shredded cheddar, divided (or your preferred cheese – freshly shredded is recommended
• 6 cups (a small head) chopped or thinly sliced green cabbage (see pic below)
• 1 1/2 cup vegetable or chicken broth
• 1 cup medium-grind yellow cornmeal (used GF)
• 6 tablespoons mixed chopped herbs, such as parsley, dill and thyme (or a couple of shakes of these dried herbs, I like 21 Seasoning Salute from Trader Joes)
• 4 tablespoons dijon mustard (I used whole grain, check for gluten)
• Salt and ground black pepper to taste
• crushed red pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 350°F. Set aside 1/4 cup of the cheese. Toss remaining ingredients together in a large bowl and transfer to an 9×13 baking dish. Cover with foil and bake 1 hour. Uncover, top with reserved cheese and bake until golden brown, 15 minutes more.

LOVE.

I’ve also made this in the slow-cooker too and it turned out great.  I cooked on high for about 4-5 hours, if on low go 8-9 hours.

The following are my crappy pics that I could find.  I’ll update these when I make this again.  I find it easiest to quarter the cabbage to slice as thin as I can with a serrated knife.