How '50s Home Cooks Made Cabbage Far Better With Canned Soup And Ritz Crackers

It's time to take a trip back to your grandma's kitchen. Home chefs in the '50s made magic with cabbage, condensed soup, and Ritz crackers, creating a savory, salty, crunchy-topped casserole with inexpensive, readily available ingredients. Cabbage casserole is one of the many 1950s foods that deserve a comeback — this meatless comfort meal was satisfying, quick, and a great way to feed a crowd. Condensed soup adds a ton of flavor to cabbage (without a lot of effort). Cabbage is a particularly absorbent vegetable, and cooking it with condensed soup lends rich flavors that can help offset bitterness. Ritz crackers add some textural contrast alongside the softened cabbage and melted cheese, adding a bit of crunch that perfectly brings the casserole together.

The recipe started with cooked cabbage. Sautéing and steaming can both work here — sautéing the cabbage can create a more caramelized, less earthy flavor, while steaming can help the cabbage retain more of its original taste. From there, cheese and undiluted condensed soup were added to the mix. Using the condensed soup as-is (instead of incorporating additional liquid) is a smart move when cooking with cabbage, as the vegetable is more than 90% water.  Finally, the casserole was poured into a dish and topped with crunchy Ritz crackers before it was popped into the oven. If you'd like to give this a try at home, it's pretty simple — let's take a look at some tips and tricks to keep in mind while you're making cabbage casserole, as well as some simple ways you can elevate the flavors of the dish or create a more filling meal.

Want to give cabbage casserole a try in your own kitchen? The instructions are pretty straightforward, but you may want to add one simple step to create a seriously craveable casserole: cover your casserole dish with either a lid or a piece of aluminum foil to stop your cracker crumbs from burning. You can always turn the broiler on for a minute or so at the end of baking after you remove the cover to help the crackers and the cheese crisp up and brown.

There are a few ways you can add to standard cabbage casserole recipes to help make them into more of a meal. Adding your protein of choice is a smart way to make it a bit more filling. Simply mix in cooked chicken, ground beef, or any other protein of choice before you pop the casserole into the oven. You can also switch up the type of cheese you use for the topping. While cheddar cheese is the classic choice, there's nothing wrong with swapping it out for whatever you've got in the fridge (a smoked cheddar or gouda could be especially delicious with cabbage). Cabbage casserole isn't just an inexpensive way to get dinner on the table — it's also an easily customizable recipe that allows you to use what you've got in the fridge, 1950s style.