Cabbage is THE winter vegetable. I eat a lot of cabbage during winter time though I discovered it is not really doing good to my digestion. But once a week I think it is fine.
As I like it cooked I make sometimes a typical German canned vegetable: red cabbage. Buying it in the shops means always having sugar in it. So I do it at home, maybe in 2-3 days 2-3 heads and I am fine for the whole winter.
It takes a little time to prepare and it will take a little time of your morning to prepare. But it is worth and very handy when it comes to have a fast ready vegetable for a meal.
The cabbage has to be cleaned only from outside. It’s enough to take a away the 2 or 3 out leaves and it’s fine. The cutting is a little nasty, the cabbage is hard and thick and you need a good knife or a cabbage shredder. The rest is easy to prepare, then it has just to cook alone on the cooker.
Store the cabbage in jars if you don’t eat it the same or the next day. Like jam put it hot in the jar, close it and and turn it over. That’s what I do, after a few minutes I turn them again back and often half an hour later I hear the hermetic close of the twisted lid. I had this year my last jar from two years ago. Still perfect and soooo tasty.
I use the cooked red cabbage like any other vegetable and eat it with fried eggs, some piece of meat (fish I never did, it seems to be to ‘heavy’ as veggie for a delicate fish), falafel or sometimes cold in a salad- Germans eat the red cabbage around Christmas with goose or duck, a very typical winter menu.
Many of you know the red cabbage as salad, raw, but did you ever tried to cook it? This is a chance. Tell me in a comment if you liked it! I am curious how people prepare it in other countries!
- 1 head red cabbage
- 1 onion
- some gloves
- 4 apples
- 0.5 lt apple juice
- 2 glasses white wine (optional)
- pinch salt and pepper
- 3-4 canning jars (middle size)
- Wash the cabbage and cut it in very small pieces. You can do that just cutting lengthwise and it will fall into long stripes. Put them in a huge pot.
- Peel and take out the middle of the apples, cut into pieces and add them to the cabbage.
- Peel the onion's outer side and stick in the gloves, around 20. Add the the rest in the pot.
- Turn on the stove and add the apple juice. Give it all a stir and let it start to cook. Add a pinch of salt and pepper and the white wine (if you want).
- Let all cook on a low fire for about one hour. Stir from time to time, just to get cooked also the upper part of the cabbage.
- When all is nearly soft, turn of the cooker and fill the cabbage into the prepared jars. Let them cool and store them in your pantry.
The white wine is an optional but gives the red cabbage just that touch of flavor you want. There will be NO alcohol left so it is safe for children as well!
You can store the red cabbage also for a year long, it will be perfect.
