An easy creamed cabbage recipe, the perfect accompaniment to a roast dinner or Christmas lunch!
My kids aren't massive fans of cabbage on its own, 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 and cheese can change things!
It's a great 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
- Delicious with roast meats and sausages
🥘 Ingredients
- Cabbage - I prefer using a leafy dark green savoy cabbage but the recipe will also work with sweetheart cabbage or white cabbage. Don't use red cabbage though!
- Cheesy cream sauce - made using the roux method with butter, flour and milk, with added double cream and finished with grated Parmesan and nutmeg.
- Bacon - 6 rashers of smoked streaky bacon, chopped into small pieces. You could also use pancetta, or leave out altogether if you prefer.
- Breadcrumbs - I use store bought dried breadcrumbs, but feel free to make your own breadcrumbs if you like. The easiest way to do this is to place torn stale bread slices into a food processor and pulse.
- 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 into large pieces (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 slightly.
- In a heavy bottomed 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 and mix to combine.
- 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.
🍴 Serving suggestions
I like to serve the creamed cabbage as part of a roast dinner with air fryer roast potatoes, slow cooker red cabbage, sausage meat stuffing, honey roasted carrots and parsnips, carrot and swede mash, bread sauce, and roast chicken or turkey.
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 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. You could also add cooked leeks.
- Make it vegetarian friendly by omitting the bacon.
🥡 Storage
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.
Leftovers can be stored in the fridge for up to 3 days and reheated in the microwave until piping hot.
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!
Tried this recipe? Leave a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ star rating in the comments!
Recipe
Easy Creamed Cabbage
Ingredients
- 1 Savoy Cabbage
- 50 g Butter
- 6 Smoked Streaky Bacon Rashers chopped into pieces
- 50 g Plain Flour
- 550 ml Milk
- 50 ml Double Cream (heavy cream)
- 25 g Parmesan grated
- ⅛ teaspoon Nutmeg grated
- 1 teaspoon Dried Thyme optional
- 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.
- In a heavy bottomed 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 and mix to combine.
- 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.
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.
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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!