This recipe is painfully simple for how delicious it is, and the ingredient list is TINY for what it delivers on flavor. By now you know I’m no stranger to a wedge of cabbage, and I love how they cook down into a soft, rich and fall-apart texture. Here, it’s no different. And here, there’s brown butter and tahini, so you know it’s automatically going to be delicious.
I like to serve these wedges on top of sourdough bread, which lets the sauce fall into the bread’s crevices, making a fork-and-knife toast situation that I truly can’t get enough of. But if you’d like to serve them as a side dish for a nice chicken or salmon, or as a topper for rice or grains, it would also be delicious there. This cabbage is truly what you make of it, and the sauce will leave you satisfied no matter what.
Table of contents
Ingredients you’ll need for this roasted cabbage recipe
This recipe has a tiny list of ingredients, but they really turn into something magical. Here’s everything you’ll need:
- 1 large head of cabbage
- Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- Extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
- 8 tablespoons (1 stick) of salted butter
- 1/2 cup tahini
- 1/2 teaspoon sumac, plus more for garnish
- 1 medium lemon, for zest and juice
- Fresh mint, for garnishing
- 6 slices of toasted sourdough bread, for serving
How to prepare this brown butter tahini cabbage
This recipe starts with the oven, so set a rack to the center of the oven and preheat to 400°F.
Cut the cabbage into eight wedges, keep the core intact so that the wedges hold together, then season with salt.
Sear the cabbage in batches until the wedges are nice and browned on both sides, about 4-5 minutes per side.
When all the wedges are browned, nestle them together in the pan. Drizzle them with the white wine vinegar and transfer them to the oven to roast for 30 minutes.
When the cabbage has about 15 minutes left of roasting time left, begin the sauce.
Set a large sauté pan over medium heat and add the butter. Let it melt fully and begin to brown. When it’s golden, reduce the heat to low. Then add in the sumac and zest from half of the lemon. Add in the tahini and swirl to combine into a sauce. Season with salt to taste.
Keep this warm on the stove until the cabbage is out of the oven.
When the cabbage is out of the oven, squeeze half of the lemon over the wedges. Pour the sauce directly over the wedges, covering them as much as possible. Squeeze in the remaining lemon juice from the other half of the lemon, the acid really helps!
Then pile it over toast and serve warm, it’s delicious.
Why does this recipe use two forms of acid?
Brown butter and tahini are both pretty rich, so this recipe uses two forms of acid to temper that richness! The cabbage cooks down in vinegar, and the lemon juice then shares space with the sauce, creating balance that you won’t overtly notice, but you’ll definitely taste as you cut through this brown butter tahini cabbage.
Looking for other ways to use your cabbage?
Here are a few thought starters! I love cabbage, so you can’t go wrong with any of these:
And that’s everything for this Brown Butter and Tahini Cabbage! If you make it, please tag me on Pinterest or Instagram so I can see! It’s my favorite thing to scroll through stories and see what you all are making.
And of course feel free to leave any questions, comments or reviews! This is the best place to reach me, and I’d love to hear from you <3
Brown Butter Tahini Cabbage with Sumac & Mint
Equipment
- 1 chef's knife
- 1 oven-safe high-sided sauté pan
- 1 large sauté pan
Ingredients
- 1 large head of cabbage
- Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- Extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
- 8 tablespoons (1 stick) of salted butter
- 1/2 cup tahini
- 1/2 teaspoon sumac plus more for garnish
- 1 medium lemon for zest and juice
- Fresh mint for garnishing
- 6 slices of toasted sourdough bread for serving
Instructions
- Set a rack to the center of the oven and preheat to 400°F.
- Cut the cabbage into eight wedges, keep the core intact so that the wedges hold together. Season both sides of the wedges with salt.
- Set a high-sided sauté pan over medium heat and add a large glug of olive oil. Let this heat up for a few minutes, then sear the cabbage in batches until the wedges are nice and browned on both sides, about 4-5 minutes per side.
- When all the wedges are browned, nestle them together in the pan. Drizzle them with the white wine vinegar and transfer them to the oven to roast for 30 minutes.
- When the cabbage has about 15 minutes left of roasting time left, begin the sauce.
- Set a large sauté pan over medium heat and add the butter. Let it melt fully and begin to brown. Do this by stirring occasionally, allowing the butter cook for 4-5 minutes or until the flecks of milk solids begin to turn golden, then a darker shade of brown. Reduce the heat on the pan to low.
- Add in the sumac and zest from half of the lemon. Add in the tahini and swirl to combine into a sauce. Season with salt to taste. Keep this warm on the stove until the cabbage is out of the oven.
- When the cabbage is out of the oven, squeeze half of the lemon over the wedges. Then pour the sauce directly over the wedges, covering them as much as possible. Squeeze in the remaining lemon juice from the other half of the lemon.
- To serve, add a wedge of cabbage to the top of each slice of sourdough toast. Drizzle with any remaining sauce in the pan, and finish with a sprinkle of sumac and a few mint leaves. Serve warm!
Would love to try this. Anything with brown butter will be amazing! Where or where do you buy Sumac?
I am lucky enough to have it at my grocer, but if you can’t find it, Aleppo pepper flakes are a great sub!
If there are any Middle Eastern groceries in your area, they’ll have it!
Amazon!!
Do you think this sauce and technique would work with cauliflower?
Absolutely! I use this sauce all over the place, and hefty veg will hold up to it.
That sauce! So delicious and a delightful light meal.
This recipe is no joke, there is SO much flavor in this sauce! The cabbage came out perfectly, I wouldn’t change a thing about this recipe. Definitely a keeper
Comments like this make my LIFE. I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
This is like nothing I’ve tried before and I can’t believe how the humble toast complements it so well, thanks for sharing your incredible recipes!
I’m so glad you liked it!! I always love that toast can kind of balance anything saucy, it’s just that *bit* of crunch we need, you know?
Hi Justine! I want to make this but is there a non-dairy substitute for the butter that you would recommend? I do not take vegan butter either. Thank you for all the recipes, you are so talented!!
Oh this is tricky! My first suggestion would be a very good olive oil, but then you only would want to heat it up for a minute or so before adding the tahini. The butter does add some richness, so I can’t guarantee the result will be exact, but if you find a nice, peppery olive oil, it might be similar!
I loved this recipe! It was easy to make and the sauce was soooo good! The two acids are definitely necessary. I didn’t use full amount of lemon juice at first, but added the rest after we started eating. It really balances the flavors perfectly.
Is there anything else (vegan) that you’d recommend using the sauce on? I love it so much and I want to put it on everything 😅
Oooo I love it on any vegetable (cauliflower steaks being the biggest winner!). I also love using it on mushrooms + rice + chickpeas to make a very filling, very saucy bowl. I also enjoy using this sauce as an orzo sauce, and making a risotto of sorts! Toss in some seared tofu or beans for protein, and it’s a full dinner!
I made a brown butter tahini risotto and served it with tofu cutlets (also using your recipe) and green beans and it was delicious! Thank uou for the advice 🙂
A lovely recipe. I just put it together today and you are right about needing extra acid. My housemate who almost never eats vegetables really enjoyed this dish. I’m glad I found you through your reels on FB and will be checking out other recipes.
I’m so glad you liked it! And happy you found my page! Thank you for taking the time to leave such a kind review <33
I’ve cooked countless recipes from blogs and social media and have maybe literally never commented on one before – but this was soo decadent and to die for! I’m also not sure I’ve ever cooked a meal with an entire stick of butter in it, so I’m sure that helped, but wow, the flavors were magical together and soo satisfying. I made it with rice instead of toast, which helped temper the richness and soak up the delicious sauce. Thank you!
So SO glad you liked it! And yes, butter always does make cabbage better haha, but here I hope it distributes into everything well! Thank you for taking the time to leave such a kind comment and review <3
I need to figure out how to not eat all of this before dinner! It’s incredible!
I’m so thrilled you like it! It’s one of my favorites, so this comment means a ton to me <3
This recipe is so good. Every ingredient feels really intentional and purposeful, and I was surprised how much the mint added! Obsessed
Ahhh this is the highest compliment! I’m so thrilled you liked it!
I have a huge red cabbage languishing in my fridge so it’s going to be roasted tomorrow! Serving this on orzo and can’t wait! Cheers!
Hope it was wonderful!! And with orzo it sounds delish
I SO want to try this!! Is sumac a dried herb or are you using fresh?
I use fresh mint, it really breaks up the heavy sauce! Dried might make it a bit muddled, but any other fresh herb will do just fine!
I wish there was an easy way of setting this for far fewer servings. Some recipes have a toggle to allow adjustments for that. I’m going to make it and try to figure out proportions for two by myself.
Hi Carol! You can toggle this with the sliding bar that shows up when you hover over the “servings” number. It should give you the option to scale the recipe up or down. I hope this helps!
Ah-mazing! I was stunned this came out of my kitchen! Made it vegan and into a full dinner. Roasted cooked lentils (thanks Trader Joe’s) with salt, onion powder and cumin while the cabbage was roasting. Sprinkled lentils on top and served over rice. Scrapped the pan clean of sauce during clean-up. What is this MAGIC Snacks?
Oh my GOSH the way you served it sounds unreal! I’m glad you liked it, and I’m so stealing the lentils + rice pairing. That sounds delicious.
Hi, this looks amazing! Does it have to be white wine vinegar or could something like apple cider vinegar work too? Thanks! 🙂
Hi there! I’d recommend only using white vinegar, the sweeter notes of apple cider vinegar might feel a bit off with the rest of the recipe!
gotcha!
Very delicious. I replaced the spice with lemon pepper and added a tablespoon of maple syrup. Yummy. Thank you.
Made this last night. My wife and I both loved it. Was super happy my Publix had sumac. I had really been wanting to try that in a recipe. Your video popped on Facebook yesterday and now I can’t wait to make like a dozen recipes. Brussel Sprouts and Chickpeas with anchovies on the menu tonight. Thanks so much!
So thrilled you liked it! And I hope you’ll like many more 🙂