Charred ‘Gildas’ Cabbage - as served at the Slow Food Feast, Ludlow Food Festival 2025

Dips, Snacks & Sides

Feeds 2-4

Cook Time: 40 Mins

Difficulty: Easy

Gildas is a pintxos from North Spain. Its unquestionably one of the most delicious bar snacks and with a glass of wine or an ice cold beer its out of this world.

I look at Gildas as one of the most perfect examples of where its simplicity is defined by the quality of the ingredients. Get those ingredients right and all you have to do is put all the ingredients on a cocktail stick to end up with one of the worlds greatest food inventions.

I was charring cabbage on an open fire for a wedding I was catering a few years ago. At the same time I was skewering around 500 Gildas for the canapés. The aromas of the two combined and I figured this would be one hell of a combination. It took me two years to finally put this together and I am utterly delighted with the results.

For the olives and guindilla peppers I used the Perello brand - you can really guarantee the quality with these guys. I sourced them, along with the anchovies from Broad Bean Deli in Ludlow, Slow Food members and purveyors of everything delicious!

I used some Umami Chef miso to add some richness and balance out the tangy heat of the Gildas dressing. Jackie makes all her miso allergen free using fava beans and it’s so delicious! I used oil to make the miso dressing to make this available to vegans (without the anchovies, obviously) but butter would be a lovely addition for a little more oo-la-la!

I call this ‘charred’ the reality is you actually want it burnt. The flavour contrasts are so addictive with the tangy, sour dressing.

If you can’t get hold of smoked almonds then regular almonds will work fine.

For the rapeseed oil I used a high quality local, cold pressed rapeseed oil from Bennett & Dunn. It’s vibrant in colour and flavour and adds to the beauty of this dish. Extra virgin olive oil would be fine if you haven’t got rapeseed oil to hand.

You can add another great dimension to this by charring your cabbage on the bbq. The smokiness is great!

I served these along side the Spanish Pork Stew that you’ll find on my recipe page and some bread for mopping up. Out of all the dishes we served that night, this cabbage was the one that surprised the crowd the most. People have been gasping for the recipe - so here it is.

INGREDIENTS:

1 Medium Cabbage (Sweetheart or Hispi works well but any green cabbage will do nicely)

1 Tbsp Miso

4 Tbsp Cold Pressed Rapeseed Oil

150g Tin Perello Gordal Pincante Olives

130g Jar Perello Guindilla Chillies

50g Tin Good Quality Anchovies in Olive Oil

1 Handful Smoked Almonds

METHOD:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200C.

2. Chop your cabbage into quarters.

3. Drizzle 1 tbsp of rapeseed oil over the cabbage quarters in a roasting tin and roast in the oven for 30 minutes until well charred (and I basically mean burnt!).

4. Mix the miso paste and oil together.

5. After 30 minutes, remove the cabbage from the oven, brush with the miso/oil paste and return to the oven for 10 minutes

6. Drain the olives and chillies separately but retain the brine from the tin and jar.

7. Add the chillies to a food processor and pulse until broken down in to small bits.

8. Add the olives and the jar of anchovies (including oil) to the food processor and blitz/pulse until all ingredients are in small pieces but not smoothly blended.

9. Remove from the food processor and dress with 4-5 Tbsp of the olive/chilli juice, mix well.

10. When the cabbage is cooked, remove from the oven, dress generously with the chopped olives, chillies and anchovies.

11. Finish the dish right before serving with a generous glug of rapeseed oil and a splash of the chilli/olive brine and finally the handful of roughly chopped smoked almonds.