Make Melting Cabbage A Cozier Side Dish When You Add These To The Pan

Melting cabbage is already a pretty cozy dish, as leafy greens go. The evocatively titled preparation takes what some people consider a pretty tough veg and slowly braises it until it's so tender and silken it seems like it's melting. You can make it with just a head of the titular vegetable, a dash of fat (like extra virgin olive oil), some kind of cooking liquid (think chicken stock or broth), and a few shakes of salt and pepper. Or you can introduce garlic and Parmesan cheese, potentially positioning this side as competition for the main. 

The green cabbage that tends to work best in this recipe tastes earthy and a bit sweet, with a mild, peppery quality that might be more pronounced to some palates. A bit of caramelization in a hot pan before braising brings those sugars out even more, and the addition of fragrant garlic gives it the depth and warmth you're searching for in a cozy meal, while the Parmesan introduces some umami.  Although this is a fairly hands-on process, you can toss it all together pretty easily and more affordably than its luxe finish might imply.

Our Garlicky melting cabbage recipe provides excellent step-by-step instructions, should you have the time, interest, and free hand or iPhone stand to more easily scroll in the kitchen. You can also just keep a few key principles in mind if you're more the type to wing it. 

After breaking down the cabbage down into wedges, sear them on the stovetop to gather some golden color and caramelized flavor. While that's working, do the same to the chopped garlic in an oven-safe saucepan before adding some chicken stock to deglaze the pan and act as the melting liquid. Once that's in, you can add your parmesan to let it melt in along with some milk or heavy cream if you'd like it to be on the creamier side. You can also sprinkle in whatever seasonings you like, then lay the cabbage wedges flat in the pan and bake it all together in the oven. Get creative with the seasonings. You can make it spicy with something like red pepper flakes or more herbaceous with oregano, basil, or herbes de Provence.

This method works better than trying to cook them all together to begin with because it prevents the garlic from burning to bitterness and the Parmesan from sticking more to the pan than to the cabbage. More parm on top in the last 20 minutes or so of about an hourlong stint in the oven is the final crowning glory. You can also reserve a few tablespoons of the sauce, roast a few extra garlic cloves in a pan, whisk it all together, then drizzle it over this cozy dish just before serving for an even sweeter, punchier effect.