Here is a meal that is easy to fix and budget friendly too. My husband loves eating cabbage especially this way. He jokes how he could live off this meal every week.

Fried Cabbage with Smoked Sausage

Ingredients:
1 medium to large head of cabbage
1 lb. Smoked Sausage, sliced into 1” rounds or moons
1 medium yellow or white onion, chopped
1-2 garlic cloves, minced
1 stick of butter
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
2 tsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. Apple Cider Vinegar (or distilled white)
1/4 cup chicken broth

Directions:
Pull off the outer dark green leaves from your cabbage and discard. Give the cabbage a good rinse and pat dry. Cut cabbage (with a good sharp knife) into smaller sections (ex: fourths) to make it easier to handle. You don’t want to use a dull knife to cut the cabbage. That could be dangerous. Do be very careful with that sharp knife as well. After you get your pieces into smaller sections you can handle, cut the core out of the middle (see note below). Slice your cabbage into shreds or chunks and sit aside.

In a large skillet heated on medium high heat with a little olive oil, cook your sliced smoked sausage to brown on both sides. Remove to drain. In that same skillet add your onion and cook for about 5 minutes. Cut off a good chunk of your butter and add to skillet to melt. It’s time to start adding in your cabbage chunks/shreds a little at a time. As it cooks down add in more cabbage and remaining butter. Keep doing this until you have used it all. Now you can add in the garlic cloves. It will seem like a lot of cabbage at first. Don’t worry because it will cook down. That’s why I like using a large cabbage so that we can have plenty. My mom told me it’s best to use the large one as well unless you have only 1-2 people to feed. She also said the whole stick of butter is necessary to cook the cabbage because it needs the fat. Believe me you won’t be sorry when you taste it. Add in the sugar, seasonings, vinegar, and broth. Cover your skillet and turn the heat down to low. Let that simmer about 20 minutes and stir occasionally. Serve and enjoy!

Notes: You can discard the core or save it to use with other scraps to make a homemade veggie broth. I’m a firm believer in homemade broths and stocks. I believe that is one contributer to why we hardly get sick in our home (once or twice a year is the most). We eat our fried cabbage and sausage with a slice of homemade buttered sourdough or cornbread. For a whole different meal you can also swap out the smoked sausage and use a pack of cut up fried bacon instead.

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