Vinegar Salt Charred Cabbage Wedges with Mustard Butter

Difficulty: Easy | Prep: 10 min | Cook: 30 min | Total: 40 min | Serves: 4 | Dietary: Gluten-Free, Vegetarian

Cabbage gets a bad rap because most people boil it into oblivion. Roast it hard until the outer leaves go black and crackly and it turns into something else entirely, sweet and nutty in the middle. Chooki's Vinegar Chicken Salt is what makes it sing, that sharp tang cutting straight through the butter.

Step 1: Cut and Oil

Heat the oven to 220C. Cut the cabbage in half through the core, then cut each half into four wedges. Leave the core in or they fall apart. Lay them flat on a lined tray, brush both cut sides with olive oil, then hit them with the Vinegar Chicken Salt. Press it in a bit so it sticks to the damp leaves.

Step 2: Roast Hard

Roast for 20 minutes, flip each wedge, then roast another 10. You want the outer leaves properly blackened and frilly. That is not burnt, that is the good bit. The inside should slide off a knife tip with no resistance.

Step 3: Mix the Mustard Butter

While they roast, mash the softened butter with the wholegrain mustard, grated garlic and honey in a small bowl until it looks like a rough paste. Do not melt it. You want it soft enough to dollop.

Step 4: Dollop and Serve

Pull the tray out and drop a spoon of mustard butter onto each hot wedge. It melts down into the layers in about ten seconds. Scatter the parsley over, add one more pinch of Vinegar Chicken Salt, and serve straight off the tray.

Tip: Do not crowd the tray. If the wedges touch they steam instead of char, and you end up with sad soggy cabbage. Two trays is better than one packed one.