Recipe Review: Sausage and Cabbage

If you want to just snag the recipe, jump to the bottom.

A little bit ago, I got the "Irish Cooking Bible" as a gift. I honestly couldn't tell you if this is legit Irish food or not, but so far it's been good!

Tonight I made Smoked Sausage and Cabbage (page 72 if you have the book).

I'm not sure what I was expecting, but not what came out. It was bitter, sweet, and savory all at once. The cabbage was slightly bitter. I used sweet onions so, obviously, they were sweeter than the cabbage. For sausage, I couldn't find smoked sausage, so I used an Irish sausage from Johnsonville.

The directions are really simple. It would have been really hard to mess this up.

Step one was to cut the sausage and brown them in a pan. So I did, like so:

Mind you, this was before they were browned.

I honestly have never cut a sausage before in my life. They're a little icky. The weird wrapper thing that holds the squished stuff together...ew. Super tasty, but ew.

I also have never cut cabbage. It said to cut it coarsely, so I left it big. I also got a little carried away:

That is definitely more than 6 cups. My bad. The amount of cabbage wasn't a huge problem. It was the size of my skillet that was a problem:

 I need a bigger skillet.

So these are the only steps. Cut and brown sausage. Cut and brown the cabbage and onions. No big deal.


After everything is thrown together, the book says it should look like this:

Mine turned out a little less photogenic: 

The towel looks amazing, the food looks less colorful. I realize they don't typically photograph actual food cooked the way it says it is, but I like to pretend it's attainable by following the recipe. 

Finally, we ate it. It wasn't bad. It's not something I could eat every day. I would get a little...bored...with it. Maybe if I had other things with it, like potatoes or something. Next time. 

Richi loved it. He ate a lot of it. His review: 

"The only thing I would change is the sausage. I would add more sausage!" 

There you have it! It's a very simple meal. Took less than ten minutes to make (not including my fight with the cabbage). Super nice for a weeknight like tonight. I'll probably make it again. Not right away, but maybe later in the fall.

K, now for the recipe:

1 lb smoked sausage, cut into 2-in. pieces (more sausage is probably better)
1 Tbsp olive oil
6 cups coarsely chopped cabbage (more cabbage requires more space, just fyi)
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
3/4 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp caraway seeds
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

1. Cook the sausage in a large skillet (they mean large) until browned. Remove sausage to a plate.

2. Heat the oil in the same skillet (get all that sausagey goodness leftover). Cook the remaining ingredients in the skillet until the onion is brown.

3. Add the sausage back. Cook covered for 5 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes before eating.

VOILA!