Roasted Hispi Cabbage, Spring Onions & Miso Dressing with a Celeriac Mash (v)
Autumn glory! Welcome to the wonderful sweetheart cabbage.
There’s nothing better than a warming plate of food on a chilly night. This simple underrated vegetable, the hispi or sweetheart cabbage, has become a favourite in our household. It was a staple, served as a side dish on a Sunday roast boiled within its life, or slopped on a school meal to offer us ourdaily serving of greens as a part of our five a day. The school dining hall smelled of boiled cabbage for days. Today, however, we are experimenting with this wonderful vegetable, using different cooking methods and adding additional herbs, spices and dressings to create more interesting dishes. We are now often focusing on making vegetables the main ingredient for our meals. There’s a lot you can do with the wonderful humble cabbage other than boiling it to within an inch of its life.
I hope you enjoy this tasty mouth-watering recipe, which offers an abundance of flavours and textures either as a main dish, or as a side dish with or without a meat or fish accompaniment.
Happy cooking, enjoy! N x
Serves four as a main dish or six as a side | Cooking time approx 45 minutes
Ingredients:
1 medium Hispi cabbage (sweetheart cabbage), washed and quartered
4 whole spring onions, peeled and trimmed
1 tbsp olive or rapeseed oil
1 tbsp cold water
salt & pepper seasoning
Miso Dressing:
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp white miso paste
2 tbsp rice vinegar
1 clove garlic, crushed
thumb sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled and minced
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp fresh lime juice
2 heaped tbsp maple syrup or honey
salt & pepper seasoning
Celeriac Mash:
1kg celeriac
1 whole garlic clove
300ml milk
10ml double cream (optional)
Knob of unsalted butter
Salt & pepper seasoning to taste
Garnish:
100g whole blanched hazelnuts
Sprinkle of black onion and sesame seeds
Handful of green spring onion tops
Firstly, toast the hazelnuts for 1 minute in a hot dry frying pan until slightly charred. Leave to cool. Once cooled bash into smaller pieces.
Heat the oven to 180C fan.
Make the dressing adding all the ingredients to a jar, shake to combine or whisk in a bowl. Season to taste.
Cut the cabbage from the tip to root lengthwise into quarters, leaving the root still in place. (This will help to keep the cabbage’s shape whilst cooking). Brush the quarters with the olive oil and season.
Using either a grill pan or a frying pan, fry the cabbage for 3/4 mins on each side until slightly browned and softened. Transfer the charred quarters to a roasting pan, repeat the same process with the whole spring onions, colouring them slightly. Transfer the spring onions to the roasting tray layering them over the top of cabbage quarters. Add a tablespoon of water to the roasting tray and pour over half of the miso dressing, coating the vegetables. Cover with foil and bake at 180C for 30/40 minutes, or until the cabbage is tender when piercing with a knife. Remove from the oven and pour over the remaining miso dressing, recover to keep warm.
Whilst the cabbage is roasting, peel and chop the celeriac into cubed pieces. Transfer the celeriac to a pan, saute with the butter on a low heat for five minutes covered with a lid. Once the celeriac has softened slightly, add the whole clove of garlic, and the milk, cook till softened. Once slightly cooled blitz in a food processor or with a hand blender to a thick puree or mash consistency. Stir in the double cream, if using, and season to taste.
Once your ready to serve up, assemble on a platter or on four individual plates. Spread the mash and top with the cabbage, spring onions and pour over the remaining juices in the roasting pan. Sprinkle over the crushed hazelnuts, black sesame and onion seeds and a scattering of spring onion tops.
Enjoy x