Are these anything like an actual steak? No. Should that stop you from making them? Also no. What Cheesy Baked Cabbage Steaks really are is an opportunity for cabbage to steal the show. And it definitely takes that opportunity — roasted into sweet, mild cabbage glory, these “steaks” are hearty enough for a main dish and seriously tasty. Whenever I make them, they remind me of garlic bread and if I’m reminded of garlic bread when I’m eating cabbage, I must be doing something right.

This isn’t a situation where you need a long list of fancy ingredients. This is more about how the preparation can transform an ingredient, so you really just need four things — cabbage, olive oil, cheese, and some seasonings.

You’ll want to remove the outer leaves from your cabbage and trim off the stem. Remove any leaves that easily come off and don’t be too precious about it — they’ll fall off anyway once you cut the cabbage up. Then, slice the cabbage up into thick “steaks,” about one inch in thickness.

Then you’ll stir some garlic, onion powder, thyme, parmesan cheese, and salt and pepper into the olive oil and brush that mixture on top of the cabbage slices. At this point you want to bake it until the cabbage is tender, which should take about twenty minutes, depending on how thick you made those slices.

And then, and only then, you come in with the cheesiness. Each steak gets a blanket of mozzarella and parm, which is the classic combination for meltiness and flavor, and then it just needs a few more minutes in the oven to achieve top melty form.

The cabbage comes out tender and soft and a little sweet, while the garlic and herb infused oil gives it some bite, and the cheese does what cheese does best. It’s garlicky, it’s comforting, it’s cheesy… I don’t want to compare cabbage to garlic bread, but this is as close as it can get.