Roast cabbage topped with a crunchy gremolata of bacon, almonds, and parsley. SO GOOD! Serve as first course or alongside chicken or pot roast. Gluten-free.

Photography Credit: Emma Christensen

Cabbage doubters, prepare to be seduced.

Here we have thick slices of cabbage roasted until the edges are crispy and golden, and then served with a crunchy, salty, nutty, bacon-y gremolata scattered over top. Plus Parmesan cheese. Helloooo, gorgeous.

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This recipe comes from a new cookbook from my friend Andrea Bemis, the farmer and co-owner of Tumbleweed Farm up in Oregon. She lives and breathes vegetables every day, so if anyone knows how to give veggies some serious curb-appeal, it’s her.

Get the Book! Dishing Up the Dirt: Simple Recipes for Cooking Through the Seasons by Andrea Bemis

Andrea’s enthusiasm for vegetables is absolutely contagious. Her strength in Dishing Up the Dirt — as it is on her blog — is a kind of quiet, but persistent joy when it comes to cooking with produce from her farm.

Cover to cover, the book is packed with stories from the farm, smart tips for shopping and cooking produce, jokes about spirit vegetables (Andrea’s is a beet!), and ideas for turning vegetables into full meals — all of which are offered with the intention of making you feel comfortable with vegetables at the center of the plate.

Andrea also has a way of taking familiar, homey foods and giving them one simple upgrade — something that makes you sit up and think, “Oh, I never thought of that!” Like her Miso & Honey-Glazed Radishes, a combo that surprised me when I first saw it on the page, but that I can’t wait to try for myself. Or her Sweet Corn & Summer Squash Coconut Milk Chowder, which is such a smart way to turn a favorite summer recipe into a vegan dinner.

The recipes tend toward vegetarian, but meat shows up in several of them. And while there are enough salads and veggie bowls to satisfy any healthy eating resolutions you may have, Andrea keeps things grounded with plenty of recipes for hearty pizzas, tacos, and pasta dishes.

The cookbook is arranged seasonally, starting right now with spring. If you enrolled in a CSA this year or are a regular visitor to your local farmers market, then this cookbook will be your guidebook over the next few months!

A few notes about this recipe for Roasted Cabbage with Bacon Gremolata: I’ve adapted Andrea’s instructions slightly to give you a little more detail on prepping the cabbage and bringing the whole dish together, but the spirit and flavors of the recipe are all hers.

When shopping for cabbage, pick heads that are tight and feel heavy for their size. Keep your slices fairly thick and don’t worry if a few of the outer layers fall away or unfurl. As long as the cabbage holds together as a slice, you’re golden. (And those unfurled bits will crisp up very nicely in the oven.)

If you cook your bacon or make the gremolata ahead of time, save your bacon fat and use it to oil the cabbage. Olive oil is perfectly fine, but bacon fat would be heavenly.

Also, don’t be intimidated by the idea of the “gremolata.” This is really just a fancy word for what is actually a very quick and flavorful herb-based topping. You probably won’t use all of it for this dish; the leftovers are great sprinkled over other roasted vegetables, chicken, or fish.

Plan to serve the cabbage right away, while it’s still hot and crispy from the oven. It’s fantastic as a first course to a larger meal, or served along side something like roast chicken or pot roast.

Get the Book! Dishing Up the Dirt: Simple Recipes for Cooking Through the Seasons by Andrea Bemis