Nadia Lim: Roasted Cabbage Wedges with Miso Butter

If I’m honest, I’ve never found cabbage to be that exciting... that is, until I started roasting it. The miso butter works magic, turning it golden and caramelised on the edges, with a soft, sweet centre and loads of savoury flavour. It’s one of those simple dishes that surprises. We often have it as a knockout side, but it’s just as good as a light veggie main with rice or noodles.  

From Nadia’s Farm Kitchen Cookbook  

Serves 4 (as a side) 

Prep time: 10 minutes 

Cook time: 30–35 minutes 

Ingredients  

• 50g butter, melted 
• 1 tablespoon miso paste 
• 1 garlic clove, finely grated or crushed 
• 1 teaspoon rice vinegar (or lemon juice) 
• ¼ teaspoon sesame oil (optional) 
• 1 small green cabbage (or half a large one), cut into 6–8 wedges, core intact 

To serve 

• Toasted sesame seeds (optional) 
• Finely chopped chilli (optional) 
• Squeeze of lemon or lime juice (optional) 

Method 

1. Preheat oven to 200°C and line a large oven tray with baking paper.  
2. In a bowl, whisk together the melted butter, miso paste, garlic, rice vinegar, and sesame oil (if using) until smooth. 
3. Arrange cabbage wedges in a single layer on the tray, cut side down. Spoon or brush the miso butter generously over each wedge, turning to coat both sides. Reserve a little miso butter for finishing later, if desired. 
4. Roast cabbage for 25–35 minutes, turning halfway, until the cabbage is tender, golden, and crisp at the edges. If the edges are browning too fast, reduce the heat slightly. 
5. Served brushed with remaining miso butter and sprinkled with sesame seeds, chilli and or a squeeze of lemon or lime juice (if using).  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Team podcast
from News Talks.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
That'd be Nadia Limb is in the kitchen for us
this weekend. Good morning. You know, cabbage is one of
those things that I just think has an eternally bad reputation,
Like people just feel so bad about cabbage. And I
think it's because cabbage isn't necessarily cooked well a lot

(00:32):
of the time. Am I being fair?

Speaker 3 (00:35):
Well? I used to grow a lot of cabbages and
then I got into this situation where I had too
many cabbages and was like, what do I do with
all of them? And you know the thing that your
mind instantly goes to is saw. Yeah, but there's only
so much cabbage slaw you can eat, and in winter time,
when cabbages are really cheap, you know, there's you don't

(00:57):
really feel like eating cold slaw, do you?

Speaker 2 (01:00):
No? No?

Speaker 3 (01:01):
Yeah? So I had to come up with some other
ways of cooking it. And I think it was a
restaurant in Auckland called Jamaze Street.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
I certainly do. I love jama Street. Yeah, Lebanese on
s Kevin's Arcade, Yeah yeah, on Hatting a Happy Road.

Speaker 3 (01:16):
Yeah, And I'm pretty sure That's where I first experienced
roasted cabbage, and I was blown away. Wow, whoever thought
of roasting cabbage? And now I think it is quite
a trendy thing. Yeah, and now we do it at
home all the time. We roast cabbage. Instead of just
turning it into a cold floor or you know, stir
frying it, we roast it. Yeah, it's delicious.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
Oh great, Oh well, I'm very into that. And I
think I'm having a little miso butter in there. Makes
all the difference. I think about one I.

Speaker 3 (01:43):
Go to this done this story.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
Well, no, I just think sometimes the key to cabbage
is putting it with delicious sauces. I have you? Is
it Tanooki's Cave. Just to throw in another another restaurant
an Auckland, which is a little Japanese restaurant, and they
have a dish that's just like half of a cabbage
and it's basically served with like a metric or like
a kilogram of of mayonnaise of Japanese mayonnaise, and so

(02:10):
you just like and so basically every bite is like
like one third cabbage, two thirds mayonnaise. And I'm always like,
this is the way to eat. It's not the healthiest
thing in the world. But yeah, I think I think
putting cabbage with the right things can make all the
difference too.

Speaker 3 (02:23):
Yeah, definitely. So this recipe that I've got for you
guys today is out of my latest cookbook, Mardias Farm Kitchen,
and it is roasted cabbage wedges with miso butter. One
of my go to pantry staples is meso. Like if
people ask me what are some interesting flavor things that
I should have in my friend all the time, miso
is always one of them because I think it just

(02:45):
adds so much delicious, savory depth of flavor to so
many things.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
It's the umami, isn't it. It's got that the miso.

Speaker 3 (02:52):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
That's fantastic.

Speaker 3 (02:55):
What you're gonna do for this receive? Firstly, you have
to make like a meso paste, very easy. You just
make fifty grams of melted butter with one tablespoon of
meso paste. And people confused about what kind of meso
to get, I just get white meso because there are
different types of meso. The white meso is probably the
more common one, but you can even get the one.

(03:16):
I've got my fridge at the moment. It's like meso
with some dashy paste in it, which is what they
use for like making a meso soup. So you can
use either, it doesn't matter. Goden news eis whatever. You
can find one garlic clove that's been finally grated or crushed,
a teapin of rice vinegar if you like, a quarter
of a testpin of sesame oil. So you make that

(03:38):
all together into a paste. Yep, and then you get
a small green cabbage. But you could go a purple
cabbage as well. Actually, if it's not small, I would
go half of a large one, right, Yeah, and then
you need to cut either the small cabbage or the
large half into six to eight wedges. So yeah, we
want those wedges to kind of be I'd say about

(03:59):
two centimeters thick, yes, because obviously if they're really really
like it will take a lot longer to cook they're
too then they might cook. But yeah, and then all
you've got to do so get your oven to a
two hundred degrees celsius, arrange those cabbage wedges and a
single layer to make sure it's a single layer on
the oven tray with the cutside down. Then spoon or

(04:20):
brush the meat so butter paste generously over each wedge
and turn them to coat both sides. Reserve a bit
of the meat so butter for later, just to finish
it off. And then you simply roast the cabbage at
two hundred degrees celsius for twenty five to thirty five minutes,
turn them about halfway through cooking, and your cabbage to
turn out like very deliciously tender, golden, and a little

(04:42):
bit quispy at the edges. Yeah, if it looks like
the edges are browning or burning too fast, you can
always reduce the heat slightly, because of course everyone's ovens
is slightly different. And then when you take them out
hot straight out of the oven, just brush with a
little more of that meat so butter, and then if
you like, you can sprinkle with cest me seeds, maybe
some finely chopped chili, and to serve a little squeeze

(05:04):
of lemon or lime juice. Delicious side Like this is
a pretty knockout side, but I also think that it
could be the main hero of your dish too, Like
if you had like a noodle stir fried noodles or
warm noodle cellad or something, or even some kind of
strike rice dish or whatever, you know, roast potatoes and

(05:25):
stuff like. I feel like the cabbage could be your
your hero part of the of a of a beautiful
vegetarian dish as well.

Speaker 2 (05:32):
It just looks so so good. Thank you and just
on a way to elevate you know, someone who's usually
that you know, always the bridesmaid, never the bride and
the cabbage you know, like it really is. It does
sound amazing and kind of adding all of those interesting flavors,
the miso butter off set it with a little bit
of chili as well, a little bit of lead lime.

(05:54):
Just so good.

Speaker 3 (05:55):
Yeah, Okay, I'm feeling like eating it for breakfast.

Speaker 2 (05:58):
I know, I know that's a.

Speaker 3 (06:00):
Little bit like I have cabbage for breakfast.

Speaker 1 (06:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (06:02):
Hey, thank you. So where can we find that? That's
in your latest right Natties Farm?

Speaker 3 (06:06):
Yeah nat if I'm catching the cookbox, but I'll give
you guys the risk.

Speaker 2 (06:09):
Yeah, we'll check it up. News talksb dot co dot indeed, Nadielim,
thank you so much. Have a great weekend.

Speaker 3 (06:15):
Yeah YouTube Jacks cheers.

Speaker 1 (06:17):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame. Listen live
to News Talks ed B from nine am Saturday, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio