The Comforting 4-Ingredient Cabbage Dinner To Add To Your Rotation

Cabbage and sausage may not sound like a combination that's particularly exciting, but combine them in a hot skillet with some onion and garlic and you end up with a surprisingly satisfying meal. The combination of the sweet, earthy browned cabbage, the savoriness of the sausage, and all the aromatics of the onion and garlic makes for a comforting and delicious dish, especially given how little effort it takes to make.

It's a familiar pairing for good reason — cabbage and sausage have been hanging out in dishes together around the world for generations. In Polish cuisine, the dish "bigos" is a long-cooked stew made with fresh cabbage, fermented sauerkraut and various meats, including Polish sausage (which is best poached and grilled). In China, cabbage and sweet pork sausage are a traditional stir-fry pairing, while in Germany, there is a similar tradition in the form of the dish "braunkohl und pinkel," which uses kale, another cruciferous vegetable. The dishes vary but have the same basic logic at their core: using these inexpensive and hearty ingredients together to create a meal that is tasty and filling. 

Cooking them together in a skillet is the quickest way to combine them. Just don't cook the cabbage for too long because it contains sulfur compounds that can become more noticeable with prolonged cooking. Give the cabbage a shorter cooking time over fairly high heat so that the flavor stays sweet and the cabbage gets crispy.

The choice of sausage can really shape the flavor of the final dish, and with so many sausages from around the world to choose from, there's plenty of room to experiment. To lean into Central European flavors, smoked sausage is the way to go, but you can also use spicy sausages to create a nice contrast with the sweet cabbage. If you don't eat pork, chicken sausages are a good option, as are plant-based links if you are meat-free. Once the sausages have browned in the pan, remove them and add sliced onions, letting them soften in the sausage fat and scraping the bottom so they don't stick. Then cook the cabbage (in batches if you have a small skillet) until it gets just a little crispy. Add the garlic near the end of the cooking process so it doesn't burn.

Once everything is browned, add a splash of water or broth to deglaze the pan, loosening the caramelized bits that are stuck to the skillet. Return the sausages to the pan and season with caraway seeds and smoked paprika, then throw in a splash of apple cider vinegar to add some tang and cut through the richness of the sausage. You can serve the skillet exactly as is for an easy one-pan dinner and be perfectly content, perhaps with a slice of bread for scooping. Otherwise, follow our tips for the best mashed potatoes and serve with a dollop of creamy, hearty mash on the side.