Kielbasa Cabbage Skillet is a quick and easy dinner that is equal parts hearty and satisfying, especially when you need to convince some picky eaters to finish their greens.

I made this dish when I was looking for something to serve as the main course of my Polish-inspired meal to accompany the children’s book The Hundred Dresses. I wanted to make something “very Polish” that my family would enjoy. Polska kielbasa is the first thing I think of when I consider Polish food, the children love hot dogs, and I thought this might remind them enough of the flavor that they would be open to eating it.

The cabbage cooks with the sausage, so it soaks up all that flavor which I think helps the idea of a vegetable go down easier with the youngins. We never try to trick the girls when it comes to food, and we certainly don’t want to lie to them about what they’re eating, but sometimes mixing flavors together helps with the hard sell of eating vegetables.

We ate this with potato pierogi, cucumber yogurt salad, and green beans, but I could see this going great on a hoagie roll with sauerkraut and mustard, too.

Yield: 4-6

Kielbasa Cabbage Skillet

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Ingredients

• 1 pound polska kielbasa
• 1 head cabbage
• kosher salt
• freshly crushed black pepper

Instructions

1. Chop the kielbasa and cabbage into bite sized pieces.
2. Heat a cast iron skillet over medium heat and add the chopped kielbasas. Allow it to cook, undisturbed, for 5 minutes to allow some of the fat to render and the kielbasa to brown.
3. Add the cabbage and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until the cabbage is tender, about 5-7 minutes.
4. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve hot.