Roasted cabbage wedges with sweet corn and a spicy lime vinaigrette.
For the first time.
As an adult.
I have my own garden.
And I’m growing vegetables.
And this week I had my first harvest.
Hungarian hot peppers.
And friends, I have a lot of them.
Somehow through the process of growing all of my vegetables from seed, caring for those seedlings in my basement under a grow light, potting them up, hardening them off outdoors and finally transplanting them into their forever homes – I’ve made a big mistake. I have eight hot pepper plants, and sadly, zero bell peppers.
I had planned to put in two Hungarian hot pepper plants and a variety of heirloom bell pepper plants, but somewhere along the process I must have mislabeled my seedlings. And in went just Hungarian hots. Even though I love a hot pepper, I was actually pretty bummed when I realized what I did. I just had such big dreams for my sweet bell peppers.
But I guess hot peppers need some love too. So I hope you guys are down with spicy food. What do you like to do with your hot pepper harvests? I’d love to collect more recipes to preserve these babies. Please let me know if the comments below.
I’m thinking a lot of preserving and pickling and lacto-fermenting will happen. Also a lot of roasting and whizzing into dressings like this herby, spicy lime vinaigrette. Roasting hot peppers and blending them into sauces, and vinaigrettes makes their spiciness a little less intense and a little more mellow and smooth to enjoy.
And I’ll be making big batches of this spicy vinaigrette all summer long. It’s the perfect amount of heat and brightness and tang. It’s great on these roasted cabbage wedges, and it’s fantastic as a dressing on grain bowls, pasta salad and grilled vegetables.
Roasting cabbage is so good. I got the idea from The Kitchn a few years ago. And if you haven’t roasted cabbage before, please start here with this recipe. It’s a whole new way to love and appreciate this super good for you brassica.
But, if you don’t feel like turning your oven on, I totally don’t blame you. Instead, you can try grilling your cabbage. Simply coat the cabbage and hot peppers in a thin layer of olive oil, sprinkle them with salt and pepper, and grill on all sides until lightly charred. Summer eating at its finest.
This recipe is naturally vegan, and I made a vegetarian version for my monthly column over on Feast Magazine. To grab the recipe for my roasted cabbage with spicy yogurt sauce and pistachios, click here.
And lastly, this post is sponsored by Winona Pure – a brand I support and trust. Winona Pure is a non-GMO cooking spray line that is free of chemical propellants, artificial additives, alcohol, silicone and soy. And unlike most sprays Winona Pure products are safe to spray directly onto your food. We’ve been working collaboratively with each other for a little while now. You can check out my previous Winona Pure posts here and here and here.
Roasted Cabbage with Sweet Corn + Spicy Vinaigrette
Ingredients
- 1 head green cabbage
- 1/2 cup cooked corn
- 1 medium hot hungarian pepper
- 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons olive oil {see notes}
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 tablespoon lime juice
- 1 teaspoon lime zest
- sea salt to taste
- black pepper to taste
- 1/4 cup parsley or cilantro chopped
- Greek yogurt for garnish {optional}
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 450 degrees, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Cut the cabbage into 8 wedges and space them out on the baking sheet. Place the peppers whole on the same baking sheet. Drizzle or spray them with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
- Roast for 10 minutes and remove the peppers. Flip the cabbage and continue to roast for 10 more minutes or until golden brown on both sides.
- When peppers are cool enough to handle, remove their stems and seeds and add their meat to a food processor along with the remaining 1/4 cup olive oil, vinegar, garlic, lime juice, lime zest and a heavy pinch of salt and black pepper. Whiz until smooth.
- When the cabbage is done roasting top it with the dressing, corn, parsley and serve warm.
Notes
This post is sponsored by Winona Pure; all opinions are my own.
Kathryn says
How exciting to be able to harvest and cook with your first produce. We had just enough raspberries the other day to make a glaze for some doughnuts and I swear, they tasted a million times better because I knew the raspberries were ‘mine’! I’ve never tried treating cabbage this way but it sounds so delicious – especially with that spicy vinaigrette just to lighten everything up.
lynsey | lynseylovesfood says
Omg! Pepper infused honey or vinegar or simple syrups for cocktails (like spicy mango margaritas). Can you tell I love peppers? This recipe looks beautiful. xo
Jessie Snyder | Faring Well says
This looks and sounds so delicious and perfect for summer. I think that is hilarious about your hot pepper plants (haha!) but sorry about your disappointment when you found out – bring on the spicy recipes, right?! Excited to see what you do with the abundance of them now. Peppers do grow like mad, maybe you can have a pepper stand instead of a lemonade one in front of your house on the weekends hehe.
Amy | Sobremesa says
I’ll pay you to deliver some of these beauties to me right now! Seriously, my kind of food to a T. Such gorgeous photos too! I’m looking forward to seeing what you do with all those hot peppers. Happy weekend, my friend xo.
Kennedy Cole| KCole's Creative Corner says
I am drooling over that vinaigrette! I’ve never tried roasting cabbage, but I’m sure I would love it, considering that I love every other roasted vegetable. Looks great!
Mandy says
They say the difference between a novice and a master gardener is that the master gardener has failed more times than the novice has tried. Own your mistakes and be proud that you’re growing your own! I went on vacation in May, so had a house-sitter care for my “babies” in a reemay tunnel. She moved things around to give them equal light and when I returned, I had no idea which were patty pans, which cucumbers and which gem squash. I just had to guess and ended up with no cukes at all. Oh well, next year I will label everything. Thanks for the recipe. I have a counter full of small red cabbage heads that this would be the perfect for.
Sarah | Well and Full says
Herby, spicy, and zesty? More like perfect! As much as I love my usual oil and vinegar standby, multidimensional vinaigrettes knock it out of the park. I’m super jealous that you have your abundance of homegrown hot peppers at your disposal. One day I’ll have my own garden. A girl can dream!
Lily | Kale & Caramel says
These are gorgeous, Sherrie! I’ve spent the past few weeks immersed (literally and figuratively) in sauerkraut-making, so I actually started giggling when I saw cabbage in such a novel form. Roasted! I can’t wait to try. Speaking of fermenting—are you planning to lacto-ferment hot sauce? That sounds brilliant. I’ve had so much fun with the sauerkraut!
aida mollenkamp says
Ack – I’ve done the same thing in the garden except planted a ton of onions instead of tomatoes! Have you pickled Hungarian hots? They’re pretty amazing that way!
Sherrie says
Aida, no but I really want to. It’s definitely on my list.
KathrynR @ anotherfoodiebloger@wordpres.scom says
I freeze my abundance of hot peppers after I’ve used all I can for meals and homemade salsa! At that point they can only be used in sauces, soups, etc.
Sherrie says
Keep the dream alive, Sarah! xo
Sherrie says
I totally need to make some fermented hot sauce. It’s on my list, thank you for reminding me.
Jayme Henderson says
Sherrie! That’s so great that you started all of your veggies from seed! We did that last year, and babied them like crazy. You bond with those little seedlings and think about them all the time. One day, we took out our seedlings (seriously, like 100 of them – peppers, herbs, tomatoes, squashes) and went to work. That night, a neighbor of ours sent us a text with a video of 1″ hail falling down. We lost 80% of those little veggie and herb starts. I understand the pain of either losing your hard work or messing up and planting the wrong things. I’ve done the same thing and ended up with a ton of yellow squash. Oh, well! We can laugh about that, right?
As far as preserving peppers goes, we dehydrate ours and make a hot pepper seasoning blend. Last year’s blend included a ghost pepper (insert sneeze here)! We are looking into making a house sambal blend. In fact, I’m exploring the book, Hot Sauce!, by Jennifer Trainer Thompson. The title explains it all. And I have to make this recipe. Have to. xo!