Told you there would be more cabbage. This dish happened by accident. The very existence is a testament to this blog.
Uhh. It’s one of those tastes better than it looks deals.
I was scrounging around for food one day and had only a few things left in my fridge. A half head of cabbage, a few red potatoes, and leftover summer sausage. That desperation led to this dish. With a few tweaks and preparation, this humble meal was born. I’ve made it countless times since – loosely following the recipe – but each outcome just as delicious.
If my dream of The Boxcar Cook restaurant/dive ever came to fruition, this would be a staple. Affordable and comforting, this meal – with the sweet bitterness of the cabbage and the spicy flavor of the horseradish and mustard – goes down perfectly with an Imperial IPA. So crack open a beer or few and start cooking.
Ingredients
1 head of green cabbage
5 red potatoes
2 pre-cooked kielbasa, or any summer sausage
horseradish dijon mustard or mayo
pickled jalapenos*
cheese*
1 yellow onion
1/2 cup of balsamic vinegar
*optional*
Instructions
1. Fill an 8 quart pot with about 6 quarts of water
2. Season with salt, pepper, 1 chicken bouillon and bring to boil
3. Wash and peel potatoes, quarter them and toss in pot
4. Cut cabbage into small chunks and put in pot
5. Place a lid over and let sit over medium heat
6. Chop 1 1/2 cups of onion
7. Cut up your sausage into small chunks
8. Let the pot simmer for about 45 minutes
9. Once you can mash the potato easily with a spoon/fork you should be good!
10. Drain the water and turn heat down to low
11. Toss onion, sausage, and vinegar
12. *Add the dijon mustard or mayo, either works, I’ve used both, so I can’t recommend one over the other – both are delicious. Or hell I guess a nice spicy beer mustard works
13. Season with black pepper and salt
14. Stir it all together for about a minute or two, just until sausage gets warm
15. Enjoy
Notes Obviously there is room for a lot of variation in this one. You can go either the mustard or mayo route, but like I said, both are delicious. And you can also mix up the sausage, kielbasa is good, but so is summer sausage, or a nice andouille would work too. This recipe was made by using whatever I had, so let your imagination run with it.
