Lemon Garlic Sauteed Cabbage

One of my favorite cabbage recipes! See how to make delicious sautéed cabbage with fresh lemon and garlic. Simple, quick, and delicious!

Watch The Video

Sauteed Cabbage Recipe Video

Related: We love this roasted cabbage!

My Favorite Way to Cook Cabbage

This is a simple, delicious, and healthy recipe for cooking cabbage. It’s also my go-to method (same goes when we are cooking zucchini or a variety of vegetables). If you have never sautéed cabbage before, you need to start. As the cabbage cooks in the pan, it wilts, turns tender, and becomes sweet. Cabbage may sound like a boring side, but this is one of our favorite sides to make. We also love roasting cabbage and turning it into kimchi.

The Best Way to Cook Cabbage

Cabbage is underrated and is a nutrient powerhouse. It’s good for you with high levels of vitamin C, is antioxidant-rich, and has been shown to have anti-inflammatory benefits.

We love cabbage in many forms, but our favorite way to cook it is to saute it in a little fat on the stove. In this easy recipe, we stay on the healthier side and cook the cabbage in olive oil, but you can swap the olive oil for other fats.

Try butter, coconut oil or nut oils like walnut. You can even cook a few pieces of bacon before the cabbage and use the rendered bacon fat for extra flavor — we do this for our easy bacon fried cabbage recipe.

Making The Recipe

Making this cabbage recipe could not be simpler. Heat some fat in a skillet, add shredded cabbage (I’ve shared my tips for shredding cabbage below), a bit of salt and pepper, and the cook until wilted and sweet.

Simply sautéed cabbage cooked with olive oil, salt and a bit of pepper is quite delicious, but when we have them in the kitchen, we love to add minced garlic and fresh lemon juice.

The garlic adds flavor, and the lemon brightens up the dish. If you don’t have a lemon, apple cider vinegar is an excellent substitute.

If you love the lemon and garlic combo, try our balsamic sautéed Brussels sprouts, garlic butter sautéed green beans, easy sautéed kale or this lemony sautéed spinach!

How to Shred Cabbage

I love shredded cabbage in this recipe. Here’s how I do it:

  1. Remove any tattered or bruised outer leaves.
  2. Cut the cabbage into quarters, and then cut out the core.
  3. Slice the cabbage quarters into thin shreds. You can hand shred with a knife (like in the photos below), use a mandoline or use your food processor shredding attachment.
How to Cut Cabbage
Quartering the cabbage makes removing the core easier.
How to Cut Cabbage into Shreds
Slice the quartered cabbage into thin shreds.

More Easy Cabbage Recipes

Easy Lemon Garlic Sauteed Cabbage

Lemon Garlic Sauteed Cabbage

  • PREP
  • COOK
  • TOTAL

This easy, healthy recipe for sauteed cabbage is delicious. As the cabbage cooks in the pan, it wilts, turns tender, and becomes sweet. Cabbage may sound like a boring side, but this is one of our favorite side dishes to make. White cabbage is our favorite for this, but other cabbage varieties will work. Keep in mind, though, that Napa cabbage will release more moisture and won’t brown as nicely in the pan.

Makes 4 servings

Watch Us Make the Recipe

You Will Need

2 pounds white cabbage, core removed and shredded (10 cups)

1 1/2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon garlic, minced

Pinch crushed red pepper flakes

1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt or more to taste

Half of a lemon, cut into wedges

Directions

    1Heat the olive oil in a large skillet or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the cabbage, garlic, red pepper flakes, and the salt. It might seem like too much cabbage for the pan, but as it cooks, the cabbage will wilt down.

    2Cook, stirring occasionally until the cabbage is tender and some of the cabbage begins to turn a light brown; 10 to 15 minutes.

    3Squeeze the juice from 2 lemon wedges over the cabbage. Taste then adjust with more salt, pepper, and lemon juice as needed.

Adam and Joanne's Tips

  • To shred the cabbage, quarter the cabbage through the core, and then cut out the core. Cut each quarter crosswise in half and finely shred. Rinse and spin or pat very dry.
  • This cabbage recipe is excellent with onions, add them to the pan at the same time as the cabbage.
  • Nutrition Facts: The nutrition facts provided below are estimates. We have used the USDA database to calculate approximate values.

If you make this recipe, snap a photo and hashtag it #inspiredtaste — We love to see your creations on Instagram and Facebook! Find us: @inspiredtaste

Nutrition Per Serving Serving Size 1/4 of the recipe / Calories 105 / Total Fat 5.6g / Saturated Fat 0.8g / Cholesterol 0mg / Sodium 338.5mg / Carbohydrate 14.3g / Dietary Fiber 3.9g / Total Sugars 6.9g / Protein 2.7g
AUTHOR:  Adam and Joanne Gallagher
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74 comments… Leave a Review
  • Marlene November 2, 2023, 3:07 pm

    Excellent healthy tasty alternative to the usual greasy sautéed cabbage and I substituted Dash for the salt. Thank you

    Reply
  • Lee Ann September 23, 2023, 6:30 pm

    I had a single Bison Jalapeno Sausage left, some carrots, and yellow onions. Added them in and Yum!! The smell alone was amazing.

    Reply
    • Adam September 26, 2023, 5:22 pm

      Love the addition. So happy you loved it 🙂

      Reply
  • Mary Kaye July 28, 2023, 5:24 pm

    This was delicious! I will make again! Thank you for the recipe.

    Reply
  • Jonathan Bryans May 25, 2023, 8:36 am

    Such an economic recipe and delicious. Have just come back from work; cooked this in no time; added some sauteed red onion as well; the rest, the same….and oh my….this is a saver as it’s good on the pennies and excellent with roast chicken, and for me….freekeh instead of rice….maybe I will have mashed cauliflower on another occasion. Thank you….I love your site as it is food for ease and health!!

    Reply
  • Daphne April 25, 2023, 11:33 am

    OMGoodness! Just found this recipe and wish I had found it a long time ago. Delicious!
    I followed the recipe added just a little more lemon and crushed red pepper along with carrots and some apple chicken sausage. Wow, I’ll definitely be making this again!
    Thank you for this wonderful, easy recipe.

    Reply
  • Janie April 21, 2023, 6:14 pm

    I just made this recipe before my cabbage had to be thrown out and it’s delicious! It smells like veggie egg rolls! My daughter will love this too!

    Reply
  • Rachel April 12, 2023, 8:22 pm

    I made this to take to a friends house who was making pierogis and kielbasa. It was easy to make and we all enjoyed eating it. I will try the roasting method in the future. The small amount that was left over we ate with a little Mae Ploy and a splash of soy sauce.

    Reply
  • Tamsyn March 20, 2023, 3:24 pm

    Such a perfect, simple recipe for keeps. Thanks

    Reply
  • Stephanie February 5, 2023, 8:46 pm

    OMG Amazing. Easy so delicious. I will be immediately sharing this recipe. Thank you!

    Reply
    • Linda February 22, 2023, 2:45 pm

      Thank you for the lovely recipe, I added a leek, smoked paprika and turmeric. Had it with filleted sea bass. It was delicious.

      Reply
  • Josey January 18, 2023, 5:19 am

    I have subscribed to a fruit and veg service that saves produce from going to waste either because of over supply of cosmetic blemishes and lately ive got more cabagge than we can eat. So i cooked a whole large head last night following your recipe and tonight i turned it into okanomiaki. So amazingly delicious.

    Reply
    • Joanne January 18, 2023, 2:50 pm

      That’s great!

      Reply
  • Jane December 29, 2022, 12:34 am

    Just cooked it with shredded carrots and ate it with fried tempeh. Lovely vegan lunch! Thank you!

    Reply
    • Joanne January 18, 2023, 2:50 pm

      Great idea to add the carrots, Jane!

      Reply
  • Deborah December 17, 2022, 6:06 pm

    Can you add sliced apple to give it a little sweetness?

    Reply
    • Joanne December 28, 2022, 3:49 pm

      Yes, sliced apples would be lovely.

      Reply
  • Boo November 21, 2022, 9:04 pm

    This was very satisfying, I really liked it, used the bacon rendered fat, makes a nice side dish for my pork chops. Keeper, to make again and thanks for the recipes for any left over cabbage.

    Reply
    • Joanne January 18, 2023, 2:50 pm

      We are so happy that you enjoyed it so much!

      Reply
      • Anupama Dwivedi February 18, 2024, 1:24 pm

        Excellent recipe! Tried it and loved it. Cabbage never tasted so good before.

        Reply
  • Todd November 13, 2022, 2:46 am

    I really enjoyed this dish. The lemon juice was a great idea; it gave the cabbage a very interesting and pleasant taste. I also added onion and microwaved, diced potatoes as kind of a variation on cabbage and noodles. The potatoes do increase the amount of oil required (I used butter for some of the extra fat). I was very happy with the way it turned out.

    Reply
  • Lois Luckovich October 26, 2022, 9:22 pm

    Thanks for this, it might just be the way to get my household to eat cabbage

    Reply

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