Grilled Cabbage with Miso Butter

Lunch | Japanese

Prep time: 5 min Cook time: 20 min Servings: 4

How do chefs make vegetables taste so good? It's not as hard as you think, we generally just focus on one vegetable and work out about how to bring out the flavours, add a pairing flavour and add more texture to it.

So for this recipe we're taking the humble sugarloaf cabbage, adding olive oil and salt to bring out its flavours and cooking it on the grill until it's nice and charred. Cooking until charred brings out the sweetness in it and adds an incredible texture. Then we'll create a miso butter to bring a rich, umami element to it.

Ingredient Notes

Sugarloaf cabbage: A sweet, pointed variety with tender, loosely packed leaves. More delicate than round cabbage and better suited to high-heat grilling since it chars without going bitter. Find it at farmers’ markets, Asian grocery stores or a good greengrocer. If unavailable, savoy cabbage cut into quarters is the best substitute. It takes slightly longer to cook but grills well.

White miso: Also called shiro miso, it’s the mildest and sweetest of the miso varieties. It brings umami and saltiness to the butter without the fermented intensity of red or brown miso, which may overpower the cabbage. Sold in small tubs or packets at Japanese grocery stores, Asian supermarkets and increasingly at major supermarkets in the health food or Asian aisle.

Mirin: A sweet Japanese rice wine used in cooking. It adds a mild sweetness and gloss to the miso butter and softens the saltiness of the miso. Find it in the Asian cooking aisle. If unavailable, substitute with 1 teaspoon of caster sugar dissolved in 1 tablespoon of rice wine vinegar and add it in the same way.

Equipment

Grill pan, BBQ or cast iron skillet
Tongs
Medium mixing bowl
Spoon or mini food processor (for miso butter)
Kitchen scales

Ingredients

1 sugarloaf cabbage, quartered
1 tbsp neutral oil (vegetable, canola, peanut)
sea salt, to season
100g butter, at room temperature
1½ tbsp white miso
1 tbsp mirin
fried shallots, to serve

Directions

Preheat a grill to medium-high heat.
Drizzle cut sides of cabbage with oil and season with salt.
Place cabbage cut side down on the grill and cook, turning, for 10-15 minutes until charred all over.
Combine butter, miso, mirin and a pinch of salt in a medium bowl, beat with a spoon until completely mixed together. Alternatively you could use a mini food processor to bring butter mixture together.
Spread cut sides of cabbage with miso butter and allow to cook, outer curved side down, until butter mixture melts through, about 5 minutes.
Serve sprinkled with fried shallots.

Recipe notes

Chef Tips

Get real char on the cut faces

Put the cabbage quarters cut-side down on the hottest part of the grill and leave them. Don’t move them for the first 4 to 5 minutes. You want a deep, dark char on the flat cut surfaces, not just light colour. That char is where most of the flavour comes from. It contrasts with the sweet, soft interior and the rich miso butter in a way that lightly coloured cabbage just doesn’t. If the cabbage is uneven and rocks on the grill, press it down gently with tongs or a spatula to maximise contact.

Make the miso butter smooth before it goes on

Beat the butter and miso together until they’re completely combined with no streaks. The easiest way is a mini food processor which brings it together in 30 seconds. A spoon works too but takes more effort, especially if the butter isn’t quite soft enough. The butter should be at room temperature before you start. If the miso and butter aren’t properly incorporated the butter separates on the hot grill rather than melting through evenly.

Storage

Grilled cabbage is best eaten straight off the grill. Leftovers can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 2 days. Reheat in a hot pan with a small knob of butter to re-crisp the cut faces. The miso butter on its own keeps in the fridge for up to 1 week or in the freezer for up to 2 months, wrapped in cling wrap and rolled into a log. Useful to have on hand for grilled fish, corn, steamed vegetables or toast.

FAQs

Can I make this in a frying pan instead of on a grill? Yes. Use a heavy cast iron or stainless steel frying pan over high heat. You won’t get the same smoky edge but the char and caramelisation will be very close. Heat the dry pan until it’s very hot before adding the cabbage; any surface moisture will cause steaming rather than searing. Press the cabbage down with a spatula to maximise contact with the pan surface.

What can I serve this with? It works alongside most grilled and roasted proteins. Pork belly, grilled chicken, salmon, lamb chops and steak all pair well. It’s also good next to Japanese or Korean-style rice dishes. For a vegetarian plate, pair it with steamed rice, pickled vegetables and a fried egg. The miso butter has enough richness that the dish doesn’t need much else on the plate.