An easy creamed cabbage recipe with crispy smoked bacon in a smooth and rich cheesy creamy sauce.
It makes a delicious side dish to so many different meals and is the perfect accompaniment to a roast dinner or Christmas lunch!
My kids aren't massive fans of cabbage, but when I put it in a creamy cheesy sauce (with crispy bacon bits), they gobble it down! It's funny how a bit of cream, cheese, and bacon can change things!
It's an easy make-ahead vegetable side dish that can be assembled up to 2 days ahead of time and baked on the day!
👩🍳 Looking for another cheesy vegetable side dish? Try my easy cheesy leeks recipe!
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✔️ Why should you try it?
- Easy to make vegetable side dish.
- Creamy, indulgent and very cheesy.
- Can be made ahead of time and stored in the fridge.
- Delicious with roast beef, roast chicken, or oven-baked sausages.
🥘 Ingredients
- Cabbage - I use a leafy dark green savoy cabbage but the recipe will also work with sweetheart cabbage or white cabbage. You can't use red cabbage, but you might want to check out my recipe for slow cooker red cabbage another time!
- Cheesy cream sauce - made using the roux method with butter, flour and milk, with added double cream (heavy cream) and finished with grated Parmesan and nutmeg. Swap the Parmesan for mature cheddar cheese if like.
- Bacon - 6 rashers of smoked streaky bacon, chopped into small pieces. You could also use pancetta, or leave it out altogether.
- Breadcrumbs - I use store-bought dried breadcrumbs for ease. You can also make your own. The easiest way to do this is to place torn stale bread slices into a food processor and pulse until you get fine breadcrumbs.
- Thyme (optional) - add 1 teaspoon of dried thyme to the cream sauce for added flavour.
🔪 Instructions
The recipe card with ingredient quantities and detailed instructions can be found at the bottom of the post
- Slice the cabbage leaves (discarding any hard woody parts), and boil for 3 minutes in a pan of salted water, until tender. Drain, pat dry with a piece of kitchen roll, and set aside to cool.
- In a heavy-bottom pan, melt the butter over a medium heat then fry the bacon pieces until cooked.
- Add the flour and stir for 2 minutes.
- Increase the heat to high, then gradually add the milk and whisk continuously (a balloon whisk is best for this), until the sauce thickens. Take off the heat and stir in the double cream, grated Parmesan and grated nutmeg.
- Add the cooked cabbage into the creamy sauce, season with salt and pepper, and mix to combine.
- Spoon the mixture into a large oven-proof baking dish, sprinkle with breadcrumbs and the extra Parmesan, and bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until golden and bubbling.
🍴 Serving suggestions
Serve the creamed cabbage as part of a roast dinner (roast chicken, roast turkey, or slow cooker roast beef all work well) with air fryer roast potatoes, slow cooker red cabbage, pan-fried Brussels sprouts, sausage meat stuffing, honey roasted carrots and parsnips, carrot and swede mash, and bread sauce.
It's also delicious with sticky sausage traybake and slow cooker pork chops.
📖 Variations
- Add 1 teaspoon of dijon mustard to the creamy cheese sauce to boost the cheesiness.
- Add a handful of toasted walnuts to the breadcrumb topping for added crunch and texture.
- Up the veggies by adding a large handful of baby spinach leaves into the hot cream sauce (the spinach leaves will wilt in the residual heat), to make creamed spinach and cabbage. You could also add cooked leeks.
- Make it vegetarian-friendly by omitting the bacon.
- To make low-fat creamed cabbage use semi-skimmed milk, omit the bacon and cream, and reduce the Parmesan to 25g.
🥡 Storage
Make-Ahead: The creamed cabbage dish can be assembled up to 2 days ahead of time (up to the point of baking), and stored in the fridge until ready to bake.
Store: Leftovers can be stored in the fridge for up to 3 days and reheated in the microwave until piping hot.
Freeze: The recipe can also be assembled up to the point of baking, and frozen for up to 3 months. If you are freezing this dish, make sure the boiled cabbage is free of excess moisture before adding it to the creamy sauce. Defrost in the fridge before baking in the oven as directed in the recipe.
❓ FAQs
The leaves of a savoy cabbage have a distinctly wrinkly appearance (compared to relatively smooth leaves on a white cabbage), and the leaves are a much darker green colour.
Savoy cabbage is low in saturated fat, high in fibre, and is an excellent source of vitamin C, and B6.
🍽️ More family-friendly recipes
More delicious side dishes from the Effortless Foodie kitchen!
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Recipe
Easy Creamed Cabbage
Ingredients
- 1 Savoy Cabbage
- 50 g Butter
- 6 Smoked Streaky Bacon Rashers chopped into pieces
- 1 teaspoon Dried Thyme optional
- 50 g Plain Flour
- 550 ml Milk
- 50 ml Double Cream (heavy cream)
- 75 g Parmesan grated
- ⅛ teaspoon Nutmeg grated
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
- ¼ teaspoon Black Pepper
- 2 tablespoon Breadcrumbs
- 2 tablespoon Parmesan grated
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200°c (180 fan/ Gas 6).
- Slice the cabbage leaves into large pieces (discarding any hard woody parts). Bring a pan of salted water to the boil, then cook the cabbage for 3 minutes until tender. Drain, pat dry with a piece of kitchen roll, and set aside to cool slightly.1 Savoy Cabbage
- In a large saucepan, melt the butter over a medium heat then fry the bacon (and dried thyme is using) until cooked.50 g Butter, 6 Smoked Streaky Bacon Rashers, 1 teaspoon Dried Thyme
- Add the flour and stir for 2 minutes.50 g Plain Flour
- Increase the heat to high, then gradually add the milk and whisk continuously (a balloon whisk is best for this), until the sauce thickens. Take off the heat and stir in the double cream, grated Parmesan and grated nutmeg.550 ml Milk, 50 ml Double Cream, 75 g Parmesan, ⅛ teaspoon Nutmeg
- Add the cooked cabbage into the creamy sauce, season with salt and pepper, and mix to combine.¼ teaspoon Salt, ¼ teaspoon Black Pepper
- Spoon the mixture into a large oven proof baking dish, sprinkle with breadcrumbs and some extra Parmesan, and bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until golden and bubbling.2 tablespoon Breadcrumbs, 2 tablespoon Parmesan
Notes
- Add 1 teaspoon of dijon mustard to the creamy cheese sauce to boost the cheesiness of the sauce.
- Add a handful of toasted walnuts to the breadcrumb topping for added crunch and texture.
- Up the veggies by adding a large handful of baby spinach leaves into the hot cream sauce (the spinach leaves will wilt in the residual heat), to make creamed spinach and cabbage.
- Make it vegetarian-friendly by omitting the bacon.
Tried this recipe? Leave a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ star rating in the comments!
Beth
Oh wow! This looks so delicious and very yummy! Definitely going to be a hit here especially since we love cabbage! Can’t wait to give this a try!
Heather Johnson
i love creamed spinach so i tried this - winner winner cabbage dinner! So delicious!!!
Mairead
Being Irish I love cabbage. I'll have to give this creamed cabbage recipe a try. In Ireland we make creamed celery and creamed cauliflower, so this recipe fits right in to my kitchen repertoire. Thank you for this great idea.
Claudia Lamascolo
I could eat this daily it was so delicious I am a huge cabbage fan!