Charred Cabbage with Jalapeño Vinegar Mayo
A cabbage steak, blackened in a cast-iron pan and bathed in a fiery, bright mayo — inspired by Pigeonhole in Calgary.
Pigeonhole — tucked away on 17th Avenue in Calgary — has always been a restaurant about coaxing brilliance out of humble vegetables. This dish, a fixture on their menu, takes something most of us shred into slaw and treats it instead like a steak: a two-inch slab of green cabbage, seared in a screaming-hot cast-iron pan until deeply blackened, then finished with a generous pat of butter. It comes to the table tender, smoky, almost savoury-sweet, crowned with a jalapeño-spiked crema and shavings of mimolette, a nutty French cheese with the colour of a harvest moon.
When food writer Julie Van Rosendaal first recreated the recipe for CBC, she added one inspired flourish: a handful of chickpeas, crisped in the same pan the cabbage left behind. It’s the version we make here — a main course that somehow costs less than a bag of groceries but eats like something you’d remember for years.
Ingredients To Gather
- 1 head green cabbage — not Napa; the leaves are too thin
- High smoke-point oil — avocado or coconut, for searing
- 1 cup jalapeños — de-seeded and roughly chopped
- ½ cup apple cider vinegar
- ¼ cup sugar
- Mayonnaise — about 1–2× the volume of jalapeño vinegar
- Mimolette, gouda, or a sharp aged cheese — for shaving
- Butter — melted, for brushing before serving
- Salt, to taste
- Optional 1 can chickpeas — 19 oz / 540 mL, drained and patted dry
- Heavy cast-iron skillet
- High-speed blender
- A well-ventilated kitchen (or an outdoor burner — it gets smoky)
Method Step by Step
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Prep the cabbage
Cut the cabbage vertically through the core into quarters, sixths, or eighths — depending on the size of your head. The critical thing is to keep the core intact so the wedges don’t fall apart while they cook.
Tip · Avoid super-leafy cabbages like Savoy — the leaves wilt to nothing. -
Heat the pan
Set a heavy cast-iron skillet over high heat. When it’s ripping hot — just beginning to smoke — add enough oil to generously coat the surface. You want solid contact between cabbage and pan, but not a swimming pool.
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Char, side one
Place the cabbage wedges cut-side down in the pan. Cook uncovered over medium-high heat for 15–20 minutes, resisting the urge to move them. You’re looking for deep, almost alarming blackening on the bottom.
Note · This gets smoky. Outdoors, if you can. -
Make the jalapeño vinegar mayo
While the cabbage chars, blend the chopped jalapeños, vinegar, and sugar in a high-speed blender until smooth. Season to taste with salt.
Note · If you’ve seen versions of this that call for water to loosen the blend — skip it. The undiluted punch is the whole point.In a bowl, start with an equal volume of mayonnaise and slowly whisk the jalapeño vinegar in — a little at a time — until you reach a pourable, loose consistency. Going slowly keeps the mayo from breaking or clumping.
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Flip and cook through
Once the bottom is deeply charred, add a splash more oil and flip the wedges so a fresh face touches the pan. Cover the skillet and cook for another 15 minutes or so, until the interior is tender all the way through.
If you started with larger pieces — or if you’re impatient like me — break the cabbage apart toward the end and separate some of the inner leaves so they can cook through properly. You want tenderness all the way to the core, not just a charred crust hiding crunchy ribs.
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Crisp the chickpeas Optional
If you’re adding chickpeas — a riff from Julie Van Rosendaal’s version — once the cabbage comes out, return the still-hot pan to the heat. Add a splash of oil, toss in the drained, well-dried chickpeas, and let them sit undisturbed for a minute or two before stirring. Cook until they’ve picked up colour and a little crunch, about 4–5 minutes total. Season with salt.
Tip · The drier the chickpeas, the crispier the finish. Pat them with a tea towel before they hit the pan. -
Serve
Transfer the cabbage to warm plates. Brush generously with melted butter, drizzle with the jalapeño vinegar mayo, finish with a shower of grated or shaved cheese, and — if you made them — scatter the crispy chickpeas over the top. Serve extra mayo on the side; you’ll want it.
Note · The original calls for butter to go into the hot pan at the end. Don’t. It produces a staggering amount of smoke for not much payoff. Brushing the butter on at the plate gets you there with a calm kitchen.
My adaptation of Julie Van Rosendaal’s recipe for CBC News — itself a home-cook version of the original by Chef Blair Clemis at Pigeonhole in Calgary. I’ve tweaked the proportions and method to my taste over several rounds in the kitchen; the changes are woven into the steps above rather than called out separately.