These divine oven-roasted red cabbage steaks with feta cheese and crunchy walnuts are quickly and easily prepared. Stunningly beautiful and equally delicious, this recipe is a superb choice for a vegetarian and well-balanced side dish, straight from the oven.
As is customary in Germany, we love red cabbage being served alongside our Sunday roast. Another tasty option would be this scrumptious side slaw: Red cabbage salad with feta.
Shall we break some “old habits” and try something new? I think we should ;). This recipe gives a unique twist to traditionally served red cabbage. Easy-peasy to prepare and bursting at the seams with flavors. You’ll love it!
Ingredients
Only a few simple everyday ingredients, readily available at any grocery store, are needed to serve these oven-roasted red cabbage steaks:
- Red Cabbage: Try to grab produce that is as fresh and crisp as possible. You’ll need approximately 2.2 lbs., which should equate to a regular-sized head. A little more or less is perfectly fine, so don’t sweat exact measurements. 😉
- Feta Cheese: The lusciously creamy and slightly browned feta cheese will complement our red cabbage perfectly! Alternatively, you may also use goat cheese or another similar cheese (just make sure it’s either in chunk or log form; no cream cheese).
- Walnuts: Halves or chopped. Go for the chopped ones, then you won’t have to tackle them further down the road and can simply use “as is.”
- Orange: I mean, technically, you could just buy orange juice. However, freshly squeezed juice has a more intense flavor. Another option would be to use freshly squeezed lemon juice.
Topped off with a basic yet delicious dressing made from olive oil, honey, spices, and herbs, and this dish is ready for its entrance. Quite easy, isn’t it?
Instructions
You’ll have the baked red cabbage steaks whipped up in no time at all. Here’s what you need to do:
The following section provides detailed instructions (pictures included) for each individual step. Please feel free to simply skip the instructions and hop on over to the summarized recipe card.
Step 1
Preheat your oven to 350° F.
Step 2
Let’s get started on our cabbage. Remove the tougher outer leaves of your produce, leaving the stem intact. Leaving the “core” will help hold the steaks together in the oven much better. Simply skip and avoid eating the stem later. 😉
Proceed by cutting the cabbage into approximately ½” thick slices and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Tip: I highly recommend using a pair of protective kitchen gloves 🙂
Step 3
Time to prepare our tasty marinade.
Squeeze the juice from your orange and mix well with the honey and olive oil. Add your crushed garlic along with your spices and herbs. Combine thoroughly until the mixture is as smooth as possible.
Coat each red cabbage slice with the above marinade by using a basting brush. If you don’t have a brush on hand, just grab a spoon and evenly spread the mixture across all “steaks”.
Be generous with your marinade, and make sure to use it all up. Doing so will help elevate and intensify those flavors in the end. You can thank me later. 😉
Step 4
Transfer your baking sheet with the red cabbage steaks to your oven and allow for the magic to happen, roughly 35-40 minutes in total (baking times may slightly vary).
Step 5
About 15 minutes into your baking time, remove the baking sheet from the oven for a second to add the feta cheese and walnuts. Crumble the feta by hand and sprinkle it evenly across the cabbage. “Rinse and repeat” the process with your walnuts.
Place your baking sheet back in the oven for another 20-25 minutes.
As indicated above, baking time may vary slightly. Each oven “operates” a little differently, and it also depends on the thickness of your steaks.
As a general guideline, your baked cabbage should be tender without having been burned. Your feta cheese, on the other hand, is welcome to show clear signs of browning and some crispness. The same rule applies to your walnuts. Ideally, they should be roasted without being burned.
Recipe Variations
Here are a few additional ideas and variations on how to embellish the above cabbage recipe:
- Instead of feta cheese, use goat cheese (log form). Cream cheeses however wouldn’t work for this recipe, so keep that in mind. Incorporating goat cheese is beyond tasty as well.
- Use pecans, cashews, or pistachios instead of walnuts. Those harmonize equally beautifully with our red cabbage steaks.
- Be creative when choosing your herbs. How about rosemary, oregano, or parsley? I am partial to using thyme, as I believe you truly can’t beat that flavor combination…but hey, that’s just me. You do you. 😉
- Feel free to use garlic powder instead of freshly crushed garlic to create your marinade.
I’ll let you in on a little secret. Here’s my favorite variation for this recipe:
- Sprinkle some pomegranate seeds across your red cabbage steaks once they are fully baked and out of the oven. Perfect for the Christmas season and, visually, a hard-to-beat stunner! Give it a try. 😉
Perfect Pairings
The oven-roasted red cabbage steaks are super versatile and therefore suitable for a wide array of entrées.
One of my all-time favorite dishes to pair our “steaks” with is mashed potatoes. Its velvety texture balances and rounds out our cabbage’s slight crunchiness perfectly. And what a feast for the eyes!
If mashed potatoes aren’t your thing, opt for boiled or baked potatoes, oven-roasted veggies, a salad, or maybe even sweet potatoes. All perfectly good choices to pair our feta red cabbage steaks with.
You may also simply choose to serve it as a vegetarian alternative alongside your Sunday roast, Christmas, or Thanksgiving dinner.
Other healthy dishes
Looking for more healthy and vegetarian recipes? You might also like these:
Recipe
Roasted Red Cabbage Steaks
Ingredients
- 1 head of red cabbage roughly 2 lbs.
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp honey
- 2 tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice
- 1 garlic clove
- salt, pepper, chili powder
- thyme fresh or dried
- 1/3 cup walnuts
- 5-6 oz feta cheese
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350° F.
- Cut cabbage into approximately ½” thick slices and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
- Combine oil, honey, and orange juice. Add crushed garlic along with all other spices and mix well. Generously coat cabbage slices with marinade.
- Transfer baking sheet to the oven and bake for a total of 35-40 minutes.
- Remove baking sheet from oven, roughly 15 minutes in, and add feta cheese and walnuts. Continue baking for another 20-25 minutes.
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