Beautiful Simple Buttered White Cabbage is a quick and economical side dish which shouldn’t be overlooked. Cooked until just soft but not mushy, this delicious white cabbage is kept simple to complement the rest of your meal.

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Simply cooked, well seasoned and with a decent helping of salty butter is my favourite way to prepare many vegetables.
I use white cabbage a lot in coleslaw and other crunchy salads. One of my favourites is sliced thinly with white onion and crunchy lettuce tossed with a little dried mint and sumac to serve with middle eastern meals. But unlike its cousin the savoy cabbage, white cabbage is often not considered for cooking. Today this changes!
How to Serve Buttered White Cabbage
Roast dinners or roast dinner adjacent meals are the happiest place for boiled vegetables like cabbage to reside. Try serving with some of these meals:
- Make a giant Yorkshire pudding, fill it with creamy mashed potatoes, air fried or vichy carrots and pile on chipolata sausages and lashings of onion gravy.
- Air fryer half lamb shoulder or roast pork loin with crispy crackling with roasted sweet potatoes, broccoli and air fried cauliflower.

Ingredients
White Cabbage
White cabbages are very economical. The leaves are very tightly packed and once separated and cooked go an extremely long way.
I’ve included a weight for the amount of cabbage I cooked in the recipe. This is because “1/2 a medium cabbage” is going to mean something totally different to different people. But this measurement is really only a guide, there is no need to be pedantic about the quantities.
You can use this cooking method with pretty much any green or white cabbage variety and you can often buy them pre-prepared or frozen. Frozen cabbage will cook in a similar time straight from frozen.
What you can’t do it swap in red cabbage. Even though you can eat them raw, to cook them needs a much longer cooking time. It is best to use a dedicated red cabbage recipe.

Butter
Butter adds a lovely flavour to the finished dish. I only ever use salted butter and do often make my own but you can use any kind of butter or buttery spread that you enjoy the taste of.
Salt
Unusually I’ve included salt for adding to the boiling water in this recipe but none extra to season at the end. I find that white cabbage really takes on the seasoning when being boiled.
And when using salted butter to coat it at the end, this is plenty of seasoning. If you use unsalted butter, you may want to taste and add some sea salt flakes if you feel it’s needed.

Be Flexible
This is a very simple base recipe. You can add extra ingredients and flavours as you wish.
My favourite thing to add is chopped cooked bacon. I usually air fry streaky bacon, chop it then stir it in with the butter. Or cut it into small pieces and dry fry in a pan before adding. Use unsmoked bacon for a more subtle flavour and smoked bacon for more of a punch.
Take things to the next level by sautéing garlic in butter, adding lemon juice and zest, lots of fresh parsley and tossing the cooked and drained cabbage in the pan.
Stir through Dijon or whole grain mustard and some double cream to make a delicious creamed cabbage dish.

Vegetarian or Vegan Buttered White Cabbage
This recipe is naturally vegetarian and can easily be made vegan but using a plant based butter in place of the dairy butter.
Make Allergy Friendly Boiled White Cabbage
This recipe is free from egg, gluten and nuts.
Dairy Free: To make a dairy free version of the recipe, simply use a plant based, dairy free butter in place of the regular butter. Just like with the vegan option.
Please note that this recipe may contain other allergens not referred to above and any variations suggested have not been tested unless otherwise stated. For more information regarding any dietary information provided on this website, please refer to my Nutritional Disclaimer.

Get Ahead
You can cut the cabbage and leave it sitting in a bowl of cold water for a good 24 hours. Make sure it is fully covered. I always drain this water and then cook in fresh boiled water with the salt added. Don’t leave it sitting in salt.
Leftover White Cabbage
Leftovers can be stored in the fridge in an air-tight container for several days. It is easy to reheat in the microwave with an extra drop of water. Or you can reheat in a pan on the stove, again with a little extra water.
Buttered White Cabbage Tips
You can cut the cabbage how you prefer. But other than the very hard core, you don’t need to remove lots of stalk as it will cook to soft in basically the same time as the leaves.

Don’t forget to let me know in the comments if you try making this recipe – I want to know what you think and if you made any substitutions, how did it turn out?
Still Have Questions?
Simple! Just contact me and I will do my best to help as quickly as I am able. Head over to my Contact Me page, any of my social media channels or post a comment at the bottom of this page and I’ll see what I can do.
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The Recipe
Simple Buttered White Cabbage Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 550 g White Cabbage
- 2 tsp Fine Salt
- 40 g Salted Butter - plus extra to serve
Instructions
- Put a full kettle of water on to boil.
- Prepare 550g White Cabbage. Unless you have changed the portion size of this recipe, that is around half of a medium white cabbage.
- Remove any damaged outer leaves, slice off the bottom and cut the cabbage into quarters. (Cut a whole cabbage into 4 or a half cabbage into two.)
- Cut a wedge out of each quarter to remove the bulk of the stalk.
- Slice the cabbage into 1cm/½" slices.
- Place into a medium saucepan.
- Cover with the boiling water and add 2 tsp Fine Salt to the pan. If you need to boil more water, you can do this after you get the cabbage onto the heat in order to save time.
- Put the pan on a high heat until the water is boiling. Using a lid will speed up the process. Boil for 8 to 10 minutes until the cabbage is cooked to your liking. I prefer it quite soft so I boil for nearer 10 minutes.
- Drain the water from the cabbage. Use the pan lid or a colander as preferred but do return the cabbage to the pan once drained.
- Add 10g Salted Butter to the cabbage. Stir gently and the butter will melt and emulsify with any water droplets still on the cabbage.
- Serve with extra butter if desired.
Nunya says
Late at night. Fridge was mostly empty except for a huge cabbage and some butter.
Doubtfully i tried this, was very surprised by how good it is. I added a bit of pepper and granulated garlic, tasted almost like mashed potatoes.
Im now overflowing with ideas of things to do with this as a base!
Cat says
Simple but really tasty! The perfect side for so many meals.
Janice says
Thanks for reminding me how much I love white cabbage. Your instructions make it just perfectly every time.
Lesley says
This is cabbage cooked simply, deliciously buttery which is how I like it.