How To Smoke Cabbage: [Complete Step By Step Guide]

Smoked Cabbage is delicious and an excellent side dish. Moreover, it is easy to make as the entire smoking process neither requires many ingredients nor follows complex procedures.

Start by cleaning the Cabbage and then seasoning the Cabbage. Add your favorite wood pellets before setting your smoker at 225 degrees Fahrenheit. Wrap the Cabbage in a foil and smoke for about 2-3 hours. Once it is tender, remove it from the smoker and serve while hot.

The seasoning will significantly influence the Cabbage’s flavor, so you must be selective about the herbs you embrace. Read on to sharpen your skills on how to smoke a delicious cabbage.

fresh cabbage

What Is Smoked Cabbage?

It is what the name suggests; a cabbage cooked in the smoker. You can smoke whole Cabbage, cabbage steaks, or cabbage wedges to impart a delicious smoky flavor to the Cabbage. Notably, smoked Cabbage is not the same as grilled Cabbage in that smoked Cabbage uses wood pellets/chips, whereas grilled Cabbage does not.

How To Smoke Cabbage

To smoke Cabbage, you need the following ingredients; 1 head of Cabbage, butter or margarine, jalapeno pepper, and dry rub seasoning.

Directions

  1. Clean the Cabbage well and core out the center. Rub the margarine/butter in the cored-out Cabbage.
  2. Put the jalapeno pepper in the cabbage center before adding a spicy rub. Proceed to rub a reasonable amount of butter around the outside of the Cabbage to elevate its flavor.
  3. After placing the rub around the Cabbage, refrigerate it for one hour before smoking.
  4. Preheat, the smoker to 225 degrees Fahrenheit with your favorite wood pellets/chips
  5. Get the Cabbage out of the refrigerator and drizzle olive oil on the outside.
  6. Wrap the Cabbage tightly using an aluminum foil.
  7. Place the Cabbage in the smoker and smoke it for 2-3 hours.
  8. Once the Cabbage becomes tender, get it out of the smoker and serve it hot.

How To Cook Cabbage On The Grill

Grilled Cabbage is delicious and simple to make. Most people grilling their Cabbage for the first time end up liking it. Fortunately, there are only a few steps to follow when grilling Cabbage, making it a beginner-friendly meal.

Ingredients

  • Cabbage
  • A cup of softened butter
  • Chopped onion
  • Pepper
  • Garlic salt

Directions

  1. Cut your Cabbage into eight pieces and place them on a heavy-duty foil. Spread the cut sides with butter, onion, pepper, and garlic salt.
  2. Fold and seal the wedges tightly in the heavy-duty foil. Grill the Cabbage over medium heat until they turn tender. That will take about 20 minutes. Open the foil and serve the Cabbage while hot.

 Grilled Cabbage Recipe

To make grilled Cabbage more flavorful, you need to char them to perfection and then drizzle them with balsamic sauce for a delicious and healthy side dish.

Ingredients

While grilled Cabbage has an incredible taste, adding balsamic drizzle elevates its taste even further. Here are the ingredients that you will need to cook the best Cabbage.

  • Cabbage
  • Balsamic vinegar
  • Olive oil
  • Maple syrup or honey
  • Onion powder
  • salt

How To Grill Cabbage

  • Preheat your grill to medium heat of 375-450 degrees Fahrenheit
  • Slice the Cabbage into wedges and ensure that the root stays intact. Ensuring the root stays intact is vital in keeping the Cabbage together on the grill.
  • Grill the Cabbage for five minutes per side until it becomes tender and charred.
  • Drizzle the Cabbage with balsamic sauce to make it moist and delicious
  • Serve while hot

Grilled Cabbage Steaks

If you want to learn how to make cabbage steaks for a delicious and healthy side dish, this piece is designed to make your work easy. Before you start the cooking process, ensure you have all the necessary ingredients.

The Ingredients

  • Green Cabbage is the best option as it is tasty when roasted. Further, Cabbage contains numerous health benefits, including low calories, vitamins K, C, B6, and fiber.
  • Seasoning – olive oil, pepper, salt, and chopped garlic
  • Nuts
  • Lemon
  • Toppings

Directions

  1. Slice the Cabbage into eight wedges while leaving the root intact to ensure that the Cabbage remains intact on the grill.
  2. Mix up the garlic, pepper, oil, and salt.
  3. Brush it well all over the cabbage wedges while ensuring that each side of the Cabbage gets a reasonable amount of the mixture.
  4. Cook the Cabbage in the grill or oven until it is well done. Use your favorite toppings before digging in.

How To Cook Cabbage With Smoked Meat

You need a few simple ingredients to cook a delicious cabbage with smoked meat. They include smoked meat, Cabbage, and your favorite seasonings.

  • Start by making a broth by boiling the smoked meat in a stainless steel pot. Use chicken-flavored granulated bouillon, pepper, salt, chili powder, lemon pepper, and paprika. Adding Worcestershire sauce and some apple cider vinegar can help elevate the meal’s flavor.
  • After about an hour, when the broth is highly flavored, and the meat is tender, pull the bones from the smoked meat and set the pulled meat aside.
  • Roughly chop the Cabbage and thoroughly rinse it to eliminate any grit. Add the cleaned Cabbage to the pot of broth and simmer the Cabbage for about 45 minutes until it turns out tender. The last step is to add the smoked pulled meat back to the pot and mix it well before serving and enjoying.

How To Prevent Your Cabbage From Tasting Bitter

Although smoked or grilled Cabbage makes a great side dish, there are some instances where the Cabbage may taste bitter. Such a taste will likely reduce the savory nature of smoked or grilled Cabbage. Fortunately, there are several proven methods that you can embrace to combat the problem. Some of them include the following;

  • Sugar – Adding a pinch of sugar will offset the bitter flavors. If you do not use sugar, try topping it with honey. Additionally, cooking Cabbage alongside sweet ingredients such as yellow onions, garlic, or bell peppers can help neutralize the bitterness.
  • Salt – Never skip the salt, as this will lower the flavor of the cooked Cabbage. Salt is essential in elevating the taste of the Cabbage and also masking the bitterness that might be present in the Cabbage.
  • Lemon – Lemon can also play a significant role in masking bitterness. It can also make it tastier.

sausages cabbage

How To Season Smoked Cabbage

Good seasoning of your Cabbage is very instrumental in elevating its flavor. Moreover, raw Cabbage has a bitter taste, and seasoning it well and smoking it helps mellow out the bitterness. Here are some critical tips you can embrace for the best results.

  1. Brush the Cabbage with Barbecue Sauce – You can purchase a quality barbecue sauce and use it to elevate the flavor of your Cabbage. Alternatively, you can make a homemade barbecue to serve the same purpose.
  2. Make a Dry Rub – Combine brown sugar, smoked paprika, salt, jalapeno powder, garlic powder, and onion powder. To ensure that the dry rub perfectly achieves its objective, cut the Cabbage into quarters while leaving the stem intact. Also, ensure that you rub the Cabbage with olive oil before it with your dry rub.
  3. Use the best wood pellets/chips for the best results – While you are at liberty to experiment with different woods, ensure that they are of the best quality for the best results. Woods such as apple and mesquite wood chips can help impart the desired unique flavor to your Cabbage.

Conclusion

A perfectly smoked cabbage is a great side dish that can easily fit into any meal combination. Further, smoking or grilling a delicious cabbage meal is never a complex task as you do not require a lot of ingredients or even a complicated procedure. All you need is to ensure that you perfectly season your Cabbage, and you will be ready for a next-level meal.