Pair Your Cabbage With This Classic Italian Dish And Taste The Magic

As unsung proteins go, meatballs simply don't get enough recognition for how easy, delicious, and versatile they are. Making them at home is the perfect way to use up extra ground meat or stretch it over several meals. They're easy to infuse with a wide variety of flavors, as with French onion soup mix meatballs, and they're delicious served in saucy sandwiches, on pizza, or even paired with earthy, peppery roasted cabbage.

If meatballs are the underdog in the kitchen in terms of proteins, then cabbage is its equal in the world of veggies. Lightly spicy, slightly sweet, and almost meaty tasting when cooked properly, cabbage can be braised to spoon-tender perfection or used as dumpling wrappers. Sliced into thin strips and paired with Italian-style meatballs, cabbage is also the perfect gluten-free substitute for pasta, as it's inexpensive, relatively easy to find, and chock full of fiber and other key nutrients.

This combo is especially delicious when the cabbage and meatballs are roasted together in the oven, as the rendered fat and seasonings from the meatballs create a pool of deliciousness in the bottom of the pan that the cabbage soaks up as it cooks. You can also add the cabbage to your sauce as a flavor and texture element that holds up beautifully against the savory richness of the meatballs when they're served together. Pair either variation with rice or noodles for a complete, satisfying main dish.

Since both elements of this meal can be paired with a wide variety of flavors and cooked in different ways, there are lots of different meals you can make with them before your palate gets bored. For instance, if you're craving good ol' fashioned spaghetti and meatballs, whip up some of those cabbage "noodles" and simmer them with herb-infused meatballs in your favorite marinara sauce. Leftovers can serve as the base for mini lasagnas, or get stuffed inside meatball subs.

You might also give your cabbage a cowboy-style makeover by braising it in tomato-rich, meatless chili with plenty of hot smoked paprika, peppers, onions, and even a few pinches of brown sugar. To match the flavor profile, fold shredded cheddar cheese and your favorite barbecue sauce into your meatballs. This might even be a fun meal to make while camping, as you can cook a multitude of proteins in foil packets (including meatballs) and make the cabbage and chili in a cast-iron pot over the fire.

Cabbage and meatballs also lend themselves well to many Asian cuisines, so making something like cabbage "noodles" and ginger-scallion meatballs would be perfect in a hot pot-style dish. You could also fry chopped cabbage with pork fried rice (pork and cabbage are a classic pairing) and drape your meatballs in a sweet-and-salty soy glaze to create a spin on your favorite takeout. With ingredients this versatile, there's a world of culinary possibilities.