Not having a speck of Irish blood in me, St. Patrick’s Day usually goes by without nary a thought about it. I’ve been holding on to this recipe since the beginning of winter, just waiting for the right time to bring it to you. And I thought this week was perfect, because cabbage prices are dirt cheap in celebration of the holiday; I found huge heads of cabbage for sale at the supermarket for 29 cents a pound! And although they’re not Irish, the caraway seeds brings in a little bit of my own Eastern European roots.

I use the word “recipe” loosely when speaking about this. It’s comprised of three ingredients, plus salt and pepper. And no measurements. This can be a side dish to chicken, pork, or fish, or if you’re making dinner for yourself, the main entrée; I’ve done that too. When roasted, the cabbage gets a little sweet, a little soft yet still crunchy, and the caraway seeds adds just the right amount of spicy flavor.

I love that the coop sometimes sells half cabbages, since cutting into a whole cabbage sometimes can be daunting. I slice the cabbage thinly, so it is long thin pieces, place them in a baking dish, drizzle with a little bit of olive oil, sprinkle with a few caraway seeds, and add some salt and pepper. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20-30 minutes, or until it becomes soft and some of the pieces begin to brown. Then serve!

With the caraway seeds, use less than teaspoon, probably closer to a half-teaspoon; sometimes you can have too much of a good thing, and the caraway flavor is one of them. You still want to be able to taste the cabbage, too.

With the light in the evening and warmer weather, it is getting to be the time of year when I turn away from the oven and look to lighter meals. But with a recent fresh coating of snow, it’s not time to hang up the oven mitts just yet!