This Fire Cabbage recipe takes inspiration from Buldak (fire chicken), a Korean dish that's spicy, cheesy, and absolutely delicious. The roasted cabbage wedges are placed in a sweet gochujang sauce with fried shallots, garlic, and ginger. Topped with mozzarella and garnished with chives, this is a deliciously easy dish for when you just can't be bothered to cook.
This vegetarian centrepiece is a crowd-pleaser. The cabbage is al dente, floating on a bed of sweet, spicy sauce and topped with fresh chives. I love serving this with rice and a fried egg, but you can also serve it alongside gochugaru sesame noodles, steamed egg recipe, or this cilantro pasta.
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About Emily's Buldak Fire Cabbage Recipe
Texture: the cabbage is lightly charred around the edges, with an al dente bite. It's soft in some areas and slightly crunchy in others.
Taste: our umami-rich gochujang sauce is sweet, spicy, and comforting. The sauce has an edge of smokiness about it with a lovely cheesiness from the mozzarella. We've also got an element of freshness coming from the chives.
Ease: Very simple to follow...but you'll be using your stovetop (hob) and the oven for this recipe. It is made all in one pan so minimal washing up!
Top Tips: To save time, get the cabbage on the heat to begin charring it and meanwhile, chop up all the rest of your ingredients and prepare the gochujang sauce.
Would I make this again? 100% YES! It's everything that you'll love in a dish. It's low-effort, made in one pan, and absolutely delicious (as you can tell in the image below!!).
Ingredients and Substitutions
Cabbage: white cabbage is great for this recipe. You can also use savoy if you fancy.
Shallots: we're using shallots because of their sweetness, but white onions would be great too.
Garlic: whole fresh garlic cloves are essential to provide the best flavour for our roasted cabbage wedges. I wouldn't recommend using granules or powder, but if that's all you've got...go for it!
Ginger: fresh ginger is also a must for this recipe. I'm using about an inch.
Gochujang: this is a type of fermented Korean red pepper paste and it's absolutely delicious. It's smoky, spicy, and so flavourful.
Gochugaru flakes: these are Korean red pepper flakes and I'd highly recommend you try and find some. But if you can't then here are the 11 best gochugaru substitutes you can choose from. I'd probably recommend hot paprika for this recipe!
Soy sauce: we're using light soy sauce for this recipe.
Sesame oil: for a bit of nuttiness. You can use nut oil instead like walnut or peanut.
Honey: for a bit of sweetness. You can use agave or brown sugar if you'd like.
Mozzarella cheese: grated mozzarella is perfect for this buldak fire cabbage recipe. You can optionally use a vegan cheese if you're plant-based.
Step by step instructions with photos
Step 1: Place an oven-proof pan on medium heat and drizzle with vegetable oil. Add in your cabbage wedges, placing one of the sliced sides down onto the pan. Fry for 5 minutes on each side or until golden brown. Remove from the pan and set aside.
Step 2: Preheat the oven to 180C/355F. In the same pan, drizzle some more vegetable oil. Then add in the shallots, garlic, and ginger. Fry on medium to low heat for 5-10 minutes until soft and aromatic. Season with salt and pepper. Remove from the pan and set aside.
Step 3: Meanwhile, make your fire buldak sauce by combining gochugaru flakes, gochujang, soy sauce, sesame oil, honey, and vegetable oil in a bowl. Stir to combine.
Step 4: In the same oven-proof pan, lay down the charred cabbages and then add the shallot mixture in-between the gaps, surrounding the cabbage wedges. Spoon the gochujang sauce in-between the cabbage too.
Step 5: Sprinkle mozzarella cheese in-between the cabbage wedges, leaving the cabbages mostly exposed. Place in the oven, uncovered for 45 minutes until golden and bubbling.
Step 6: Once the cabbage wedges are al dente and the cheese is melted, remove from the oven, top with chives, and serve up with rice, noodles, beans, or mashed potato. Enjoy!
What to do with leftovers
Storage: Once the roasted cabbage wedges have cooled, simply transfer them into an airtight container and into the fridge for up to 3 days.
Freezing: You can absolutely freeze this dish, but the texture might be a bit different when you reheat it. Store in an airtight container (don't forget to label it with the contents and the date) and into the freezer for up to 3 months. Leave to thaw (defrost) in the fridge overnight before reheating.
Reheating: You can either leave the lid ajar on your Tupperware and reheat in the microwave until piping hot. Or preheat the oven to 180C/355F, place the cabbage and the sauce in an ovenproof dish and reheat for 20 minutes until piping hot.
FAQs
For sure, all you have to do is use vegan cheese! Everything else in this buldak fire cabbage dish is plant-based.
Not quite, you'll need to make sure to use gluten-free soy sauce and gluten-free gochujang.
You could try this with aubergine (eggplant), cauliflower, or chicken (for a non-veggie option)
For sure, you could add bell peppers, tomatoes, aubergines, or butterbeans in with the shallot mixture!
More recipes you might enjoy!
If you tried this Fire Buldak Cabbage recipe or any other recipe on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below. Thank you!
Buldak Fire Cabbage (Roasted Cabbage Wedges)
Ingredients
- 1 white cabbage sliced into 6 wedges
- 5 shallots finely sliced, or 1 large white onion
- 5 garlic cloves minced
- 1 inch ginger finely chopped
For the gochujang sauce
- 1 tablespoon gochugaru flakes or hot paprika
- 3 tablespoon gochujang
- 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 2 tablespoon honey
- 3 tablespoon vegetable oil
For toppings
- 100 g mozzarella cheese grated
- 5 g chives finely chopped
Instructions
- Place an oven-proof pan on medium heat and drizzle with vegetable oil. Add in your cabbage wedges, placing the sliced sides down onto the pan (see further up this blog for images for reference). Fry for 5 minutes on each side or until golden brown. Remove from the pan and set aside.
- Preheat the oven to 180C/355F. In the same pan, drizzle some more vegetable oil. Then add in the shallots, garlic, and ginger. Fry on medium to low heat for 5-10 minutes until soft and aromatic. Season with salt and pepper. Remove from the pan and set aside.
- Meanwhile, make your fire buldak sauce by combining gochugaru flakes, gochujang, soy sauce, sesame oil, honey, and vegetable oil in a bowl. Stir to combine.
- In the same oven-proof pan, lay down the charred cabbages and then add the shallot mixture in-between the gaps, surrounding the cabbage wedges. Spoon the gochujang sauce inbetween the cabbage wedges too.
- Sprinkle mozzarella cheese in-between the cabbage wedges, leaving the cabbages mostly exposed. Place in the oven, uncovered for 45 minutes until golden and bubbling.
- Once the cabbage wedges are al dente and the cheese is melted, remove from the oven and top with chives, serve up with rice, noodles, beans, or mashed potato, with a fried egg on top. Enjoy!
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