Grilled Barbecued Cabbage
Here's a recipe for something that sounds a little weird but tastes great: grilled barbecued cabbage. Saturday, June 02, 2018
A while back, chef Paula Dean came up with an interesting recipe that I just had to try: grilled barbecued cabbage. Unlike some grillmeisters, I see veggies as more than stuff that takes up plate-space that you could otherwise use for meat, and I like cabbage in particular.
There's enough pork involved in the recipe that it'll make most meat-lovers happy, and of course barbecue sauce is seriously involved. Plus, cabbage is full of those nifty antioxidants and lots of other nutrients that can help you stay healthy. So check this serious side dish out.
Getting Started
This recipe isn't exactly Ms. Dean's, but it's adapted from hers, and we want to give credit where it's due. Also, it's a bit more complex than just slapping meat on a grill and dousing it with sauce, but we think you can handle it. After all, it takes some ingenuity to put together those special sauces, right?
Here's what you'll need:
5 strips of bacon
1 onion, diced
1 head of cabbage (left whole)
1cup of salt
1cup of black pepper
1 cup of garlic powder
1 cup of your favorite barbecue sauce
First, sauté the bacon and the onion together until the bacon's tender and the onion is translucent, then drain the fat into a bowl and set it aside. Don't throw it away -- you'll need it later! Pour the onion/bacon mix into another bowl, stir in the BBQ sauce, and put that aside as well.
Next, parboil the whole cabbage head. For those of us more familiar with the grill than with the esoterica of stovetop cooking, this means to boil it in a pot of water for 20-30 minutes until partially cooked only. Don't cut it up, either; put the whole thing in there. Remove it when it starts to soften.
Okay, What Next?
Here's the fun part. After the cabbage cools, core it out. This is easy enough to do with a sharp knife: just cut all the way around the stem and yank it out. Next, mix together the salt, pepper, and garlic powder to make a nice seasoning, and then rub it all over (and inside) the cabbage until it's seasoned to your taste.
Now, remember that bacon fat you reserved? Brush it onto the cabbage, giving it a good overall coating. Then fill the entire hole you cored out with the bacon/onion mix. See where this is going?
Finally: craft a little ring with aluminum foil, then use it to set the cabbage up on a medium hot grill (opening pointed upward, of course). Let it cook for 20-25 minutes, then enjoy your grilled barbecued cabbage, hot off the grill!
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