Forget Bacon: Cook Cabbage With This Affordable Meat For 10x The Flavor

Cabbage may not be everybody's favorite veggie but pair it with the right meat and you can turn the most discerning eater into a fan. Bacon and its Italian deli meat cousin, pancetta, are often easy choices to toss in because they add a salty, meaty flavor that complements the sweetness of cooked cabbage. But if you want to switch things up and create a cabbage dish with a flavor profile that is a little more outside the box, grab some chorizo to spice it up.  

Chorizo originated in the Iberian Peninsula (which includes present-day Spain) but eventually arrived in Mexico where it developed its own unique style. It is typically made from chopped or ground pork and a spice mixture that dyes the meat red. Some are smoked, some are spicy, and some are on the sweet side, so you've got a lot of options to add different layers of flavor to your cabbage. Spanish chorizo is typically a firm, cured meat that has a consistency and texture similar to a hard salami, which makes it ideal for charcuterie boards and works equally well in cooked dishes like paella. Mexican chorizo, on the other hand, is a soft, raw type of sausage that is often served with scrambled eggs and makes exceptional street tacos. They both taste amazing, but with two completely different textures, they will give you two very different cabbage dishes.  

Spanish chorizo has a deep red color that comes from a heavy dose of paprika mixed in with the chopped pork and other ingredients. If a sweet paprika is used, the chorizo leans to the sweet side, and the flavor profile changes accordingly if a spicy or smoky paprika is used. It doesn't need much cooking since it is already cured, and because it is a hard sausage, all you have to do is chop it up and mix it in with cabbage. You can add the chorizo to the vegetable while its cooking if you want it warmed and a bit crispy. But you can also skip heating and simply chop it up and use it as a crumbled topping for roasted cabbage for a pop of color, flavor, and texture.

Mexican chorizo's color leans more to the reddish-orange side, a shade that is usually derived from chili peppers rather than paprika. The soft texture makes this type of chorizo an ideal ingredient for things like tacos, and since its raw, it will need to be cooked with the cabbage — but it'll give you a winning combination of tender meat and vegetables in each bite. If you are vegetarian or vegan, you can still give cabbage a chorizo upgrade by using a vegan soy version (Trader Joe's has a fantastic one). It has the same soft texture of Mexican chorizo with a flavor that comes pretty close to the real thing. You'll want to cook it the same way by crumbling it into a heated pan with a bit of oil alongside chopped cabbage for a vegan dish.