My homemade take on the viral TikTok fast food salad hack, made with a kale, cabbage and lettuce base, dressed with a honey mustard vinaigrette and topped with honey and hot sauce tossed crispy chicken tenders.

Cabbage and Kale Chicken Strip Salad

If you're not a big fan of kale, stay tuned y'all. I think you'll love this, I really do! Read on.

The inspiration for this salad came from a video that passed my timeline on social media one day.

The gal shooting the video was sitting in her car in the parking lot of Chick-fil-A with a drive through order. The hack was with their Kale Crunch Salad and an add on 3-piece chicken strip meal which she tossed in the box with a packet of buffalo sauce and honey. She tore the strips with her fingers and topped her salad with them.

I thought it sounded good and since I don't have a Chick-Fil-A nearby, I got one of those well "I can make that at home" vibes y'all.

A very basic and simple soup, starts with a stewed smoked pork hock and made with chicken stock, potatoes, turnips, carrots, onion, cabbage and tomatoes.

Dolly's Stone Soup

There are many stories of the origins of the folk tale of Stone Soup, and it seems to cross many cultures as well, but essentially it centers around the tale of a hungry traveler who arrives in a village where the residents don't seem to want to share their food.

The traveler goes to a stream, fills a pot with water and drops a stone into the water - promising the stone will result in a very special soup.

A collection of cabbage soup and stew recipes all from the Deep South Dish website. Pictured above are Old Fashioned Vegetable Cabbage Soup, Unstuffed Cabbage Roll Soup, Cajun Cabbage Stew, Ham and Cabbage Soup, Sausage and Sweet Potato Soup with Black-eyed Peas, Leek and Cabbage Soup with Andouille Sausage and Diet Cabbage Soup with Turkey.

Cabbage Soup Round-up

I love cabbage cooked all kinds of different ways, but I especially love cabbage central soups.

Unfortunately, my husband aka The Cajun, isn't as big a fan of it as me, meaning when I make any kind of cabbage dish, well... it's all for me.

That doesn't stop me though y'all, and neither should it stop you.

If you love a certain dish the rest of your family isn't interested in, I say treat yourself occasionally and make it. Just for you. The rest of the family can get along just fine on leftovers or sandwiches, trust me.

A hearty soup made with a chicken stock base, beans, lots of vegetables and fresh cabbage.

Old-Fashioned Vegetable Cabbage Soup

As I write this post, we are just coming off of the Thanksgiving holiday and I am finally coming out of my food coma! Although there is plenty of turkey and ham served, we Southerners do tend to include a lot of carb heavy sides. Foods that we love and expect for the holidays. 

By the time that Monday after Thanksgiving rolls around, I find myself craving vegetables and if you're a regular to the site, you already know that I am a nut for all kinds of cabbage, so let's combine the two!

A cabbage casserole made with the trinity of southern vegetables sauteed in bacon drippings and butter, chunks of cabbage, diced tomatoes and topped with shredded cheese and buttered breadcrumbs.

Cabbage Creole Casserole

I love cabbage. My husband? Well, not so much. I honestly don't know what is wrong with him! Just kidding y'all, but let's just say that I'm the lover of veggies in this family, not him.

Seriously though, 99% of the time when I buy a head of cabbage, I keep it pretty simple making either a simple boiled or classic fried cabbage, two of my top cabbage favorites. Even still, I am always trying new things with it too.

Yes. Even if it means that I'll be eating on it for a week, while I still have to think about what my hubby is gonna eat too! 

A long-held and well-loved casserole, made with chopped cabbage, onions, salt and pepper, and a classic southern combo of mayo and cream soup, topped with a buttery, cheesy cracker finish.

Cabbage Casserole

Any of y'all who have been around Deep South Dish for any length of time, know how much I love cabbage. I especially love the boiled or fried versions, which frankly, is what I make the most, even when my original intention when I bought a new head of cabbage was to write something new for the website!

What can I say?!

Simple and basic, cabbage is gently boiled in a chicken stock base, flavored with butter and bacon drippings and simply seasoned with salt and pepper.

Basic Boiled Cabbage

I love cabbage all kinds of ways –

• Fried and caramelized with bacon and onion
• Braised with potatoes and smoked sausage
• Smothered with salt pork, smothered with sausage and tomato, potatoes or even pork chops
• As a cabbage roll or even quicker, in a deconstructed cabbage roll in a bowl
• With an Asian twist of stir fry with ground beef, turkey or sausage
• With sausage and peppers
• Concentrated in a foil packet
• In a rice dressing
• In casseroles, and,
• In soups

Pork steaks or chops, seared in oil and placed over caramelized onions tossed with cabbage, covered and smothered down with a little chicken stock.

Smothered Cabbage with Pork Chops

I love cabbage and I love it all kinds of ways, though honestly, I make it most often smothered or fried.

Seasoning meats usually center around bacon, salt pork or fatback for those two. Most often, when it's smothered, its usually salt pork or fatback. For fried, bacon is king and the cabbage is also often finished with a deeper caramelization.

Cabbage, tossed with salt pork and onion and smothered down with a little chicken broth. Simply seasoned, satisfying, comfort food.

Smothered Cabbage with Salt Pork

I love cabbage. Any way really, but most often when I pick up a head of cabbage thinking I might prepare something new for the website, most of the time I go with the simple fried cabbage I love so much.

It's actually pretty close to this version, though bacon based, and for some folks, as much as a full pound of it!

Cabbage Roll Bowl

Cabbage with ground beef or sausage, or a combination of them, cooked rice, tomato sauce and a little sweet and sour element - the flavors of classic stuffed cabbage rolls in a quicker shortcut, one-pot version.

Cabbage Roll in a Bowl

I love cabbage rolls, but the prep always seems overwhelming!

It's really not that bad though, it just seems so, because every time I go ahead and start them, I realize the dread of the "work" was mostly just in my head. It just seems so daunting to think about it all, but really, some of the prep can even be done ahead of time.

This dish is a bit of a shortcut on that classic stuffed cabbage flavor, but without that anticipated dread.

Classic American-style stuffed cabbage leaves.

Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

I don't really know when it was that I fell in love with cabbage, but I do love it. I can't recall one single instance where my Mama ever even fixed it, but I've certainly made it plenty myself!

My favorite way to eat it is what we in the south call fried cabbage, though it's not really "fried," at least not in the sense of the word that folks automatically think of as fried in the south. It's more of a sauté and braise, or even smothered really. I love it!

Cabbage rolls though?

A sausage and peppers dish, using spicy Cajun sausage, pan seared cabbage wedges, sweet onion and diced tomatoes with green chilies, served over rice.

Cajun Sausage and Peppers with Cabbage

This is just a little different take on the old Italian sausage and peppers dish, adding a mix of colorful peppers, spicy Cajun sausage and pan-seared cabbage wedges.

Instead of a sauce that's typically used with sausage and peppers, I'm using diced tomatoes with green chilies in order to allow the individual elements all shine on their own and not be buried in sauce. For the sausage, I'm using smoked instead of a raw, encased sausage.

Favorite Cabbage Recipes

A round-up of favorite Deep South Dish cabbage recipes.

If you make any of these or any of my recipes, I'd love to see your results! Just snap a photo and hashtag it #DeepSouthDish on social media or tag me @deepsouthdish on Instagram!

Yum

I do love cabbage. The way I eat it the most is fried, which unless you're a southerner, probably isn't anything like what you're thinking right now. (No we don't deep fry our cabbage... although I'm sure that somebody has tried it.)

It's really almost a cross between a braise and a pan fry, and while some people do like to let all of the liquid cook out and continue cooking it until it caramelizes, I'm not one of them. I prefer it braised.

Kielbasa sausage, braised with cabbage, onions and potatoes in chicken broth.

Braised Kielbasa and Cabbage

Between Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, there are some pretty awesome smoked sausages to be found down here. Distinctly Deep South, they are unique, highly spiced and incredibly flavorful, and the sausages we use the most in our cooking.

And then there's unassuming, simple and mild, soft-textured Polish kielbasa.

Very much different than Conecuh, Savoie's, Polk's or Country Pleasin', but we love it down here just as much as anywhere else in the country. There are times you just want something simple and basic. Something that's comforting and delicious.

This cabbage dish is just that and kielbasa is perfection here.

A cabbage and rice dish, commonly called dressing here in the Deep South, made with the trinity sauteed in bacon drippings, stewed down with cabbage, browned ground beef or sausage, cooked rice, and cream soup, baked, and finished with a buttered bread crumb topping. Pictured here with my collard greens and squash salad.

Cabbage Rice Dressing

Okay all you kindred cabbage lovers - if you've been around here any length of time, y'all know how much I love the stuff... though to be honest, 99.9% of the time when I pick up a new head of cabbage, thinking I'll bring something different to the blog, good intentions fall the wayside and I end up making fried cabbage. What can I say? It's an easy dish, and it really is my number one favorite.

Chopped cabbage, smothered down with the trinity of vegetables, ground sausage and tomatoes.

Smothered Cabbage with Sausage and Tomato

Well hey y'all - wow, it's a new year already... Happy New Year! Okay we're more than a week into it now, but what can I say? I've been busy with life.

Mercy was it cold enough this January for everybody though?

I know that in comparison to the rest of the country, here on the Gulf Coast we had it pretty easy. No snow, but the cold rain that rolled in right when the temps started dropping sure would have made for a pretty blanket of snow. We did have three nights in a row where things were freezing, two of which were hard freezes, and with the high winds, daytime temps weren't a whole lot better, so for us here in the Deep South, it was cold!

Wedges of cabbage, seasoned, sprinkled with bacon, and wrapped tightly in foil packets, great for the oven, campfire or grill.

Foil Packet Cabbage Wedges

Oh my, isn't foil packet cooking just too cool? Of course, it's really intended to be campfire cooking, or even outdoor grill cooking, but they're just as easy to bake right in your oven.

The advantage of cooking in foil, is that the flavor really intensifies in whatever you tuck away in those little squares. Remember that foil packet corn? Oh my gosh is that stuff good or what?! And yes, wrapping things individually is different than putting everything in one pan and just wrapping the pan - trust me. I've tried it! Not the same at all.

 

A filling and satisfying cabbage soup made with a beef stock and tomato with V8 base, ground beef, turkey or sausage, and served over rice, with flavor that is reminiscent of an unstuffed cabbage roll.

Unstuffed Cabbage Roll Soup

There's a lot to be said for cabbage soup. For those of us who love cabbage, it's an easy way to prepare it, it's tasty and filling. I have several versions here on the blog, including my interpretation of the one that's been around forever, and is known as zero point, diet soup and free soup, and made popular by Weight Watchers. With a tomato base and loads of vegetables, it's low cal, diet friendly and filling, making it a favorite diet soup, although it's pretty well loved by all cabbage lovers.

Potatoes, cabbage and onions, simply seasoned and smothered down in broth with a spicy andouille sausage, is definitely a favorite in the Deep South.

Smothered Potatoes and Cabbage with Andouille

I love cabbage, well... just about any way that you can make it, but The Cajun ... not so much. Not at all actually. I can't figure out what is wrong with him! I still buy it anyway, of course. I'm not gonna deny myself something that I really enjoy because someone in my family doesn't, and neither should you.

Over the years of blogging, I have heard so many of you saying that you really love something, like cabbage or okra, but nobody else in your family will eat it, so you never make it anymore. I can only speak to being a woman, mother and wife, but those titles often mean that we do for others and put ourselves at the bottom of the list and we really need to stop doing that, yes, even with something as simple as a vegetable. I'm not saying that we should become selfish, but that we should treat ourselves as well as we do others is all - that's the message we should give to those we love. We count too.

 

An unstuffed casserole form of all the ingredients you love in stuffed cabbage, Cabbage Patch is made with a layer of cabbage, topped with a blend of veggies, tomato, rice and sausage or beef, finished, if you like, with a layer of shredded cheese. Perfect for cabbage lovers!

Cabbage Patch Casserole

Wow. Has it been cold enough for y'all? Good grief.

I know it's been pretty cold all across the nation with this recent Polar Vortex, but as I write this in January, we've had some record breaking temps in the teens even down here in the Deep South along the Gulf Coast.

I'm sure if some of you are coming across this recipe at some point in the future, you're probably facing cold weather yourself right now.

I'm so glad that this frigid weather is finally gonna be moving along though, because I don't think I could have taken it too much longer. We just don't get along with that here in the Deep South. Thank goodness relief is on the way!