Oven baked Savoy cabbage and walnut casserole, a riff on an Ottolenghi recipe, is a delicious, nutritious vegetarian dish which tastes much, much better than it looks.
This is an Ottolenghi recipe with the corners cut so severely it’s practically circular. Yotam’s version is for cabbage rolls filled with a mix of walnuts, onions and spices baked on a bed of more, shredded cabbage. What I’ve done is basically take all the ingredients, toss them together and bake. Result!
Cabbage ain’t pretty
Cabbage is gaining a little recognition these days, hopefully not just on the merits of the soup. It has graduated somewhat from the smelly soup kitchen realm, and from the infamy of the stinking but bland vegetable that you just need to boil for ever without any seasoning.
There’s cabbage in all kinds of hipster salads and there is of course kale, the wellness posse’s favourite variety of cabbage, readily admitted into salons.
But however you prepare it, perhaps with the exception of a fresh crunchy salad made from green spring cabbage, it’s not a great looker. So you have to trust me that this recipe is for an uncommonly delicious dish – because the visuals are anything but appetising.
Cooked cabbage is grey
However you look at the pictures scattered on this page, the cabbage casserole looks unappealingly grey. That’s because cooked cabbage oxidises quickly, losing its vibrant green hue and turning grey or brown.
The delightful Swedish dish of kalpudding, cabbage meatloaf, is dirty brown because the cabbage cooks for such a long time. Likewise my caramelised cabbage: it’s burnt brown, not pretty.
But even long cooked, caramelised and almost burnt, the cabbage in this recipe is seasoned and spiced so gorgeously, it could be swapped with cardboard and the dish might still taste ok.
Whence does the dish come?
As I have already admitted, I played a bit fast and loose with Ottolenghi recipe which, it has to be said, is one of the classically intricate and laborious.
It is even more involved than the original variety of stuffed leaves of the kind popular in Greece (dolmades), Sweden (Kåldomar) or Poland (golabki). The filling and seasoning though relate to Georgian phkali, chopped vegetables with walnuts.
That type of dish requires blanching the whole head of cabbage in order to extricate leaves, one by one, trimming the stems on each leaf, then filling and neatly wrapping into small parcel rolls. It takes all day.
But the flavours from the recipe can be achieved the easy way, by tossing everything together and baking it in a casserole. My way.
How to make cabbage walnut casserole?
The only difficulty here is to chop up, grind, dice and shred all the ingredients. If you own a food processor, you’re laughing.
But even without one it’s not a skilled job: the walnuts can be chopped by hand or smashed in a large pestle and mortar, the onion diced, the cabbage shredded and the herbs finely chopped.
The beginning of the casserole happens on the hob: softening the onions, adding spices and nuts, then gradually wilting the cabbage into the pan.
Lots of butter and a drop of water if it all looks too dry, and that’s the work done – the rest of the process occurs in the oven.
Sour cream sauce
The sour cream sauce is optional but gorgeous, so – no, not really optional haha.
The cream should be warmed up a little in a small milk pan, before pouring it over the baked casserole. If you pour it in cold, it will curdle and look even muddier than when following the instructions.
As I said, it’s not a dish to win any beauty contests but it’s wonderfully tasty. And plenty healthy too, with the walnuts providing protein and cabbage being Fibre Central.
More cabbage recipes
Cabbage lasagne, a vegetarian dish of pasta layered with a filling of lightly cooked cabbage with tomatoes. Surprisingly flavourful and delicious!
Another way to cook cabbage: crispy and caramelised. Brown cabbage Swedish style is simply fried down and baked. This method turns the vegetable into the perfect side dish.
Potato and cabbage gratin, herby with sage and dill, cheesy with gruyere or Cheddar. Rich, warming and absolutely comforting – it’s an oven-baked antidepressant!
More savoury recipes with walnuts
Feta with grapes and walnuts is a fantastic salad, perfect for lunch or as a starter. It resembles the Waldorf salad a little but is easier to make. Just roast the grapes with a little balsamic, crumble feta and walnuts; and it’s self-dressed with the grape juices.
Jumbo pasta shells, conchiglioni, stuffed with ricotta and walnuts, baked in tomato sauce. That’s conchiglioni ripieni al forno, or giant shells pasta bake with vegetarian filling of ricotta and walnuts.
Muhammara, roasted red pepper and walnut dip, flavoured with pomegranate molasses and Aleppo pepper flakes. This should be a firm fixture in your next meze!