Red cabbage is a favourite of the Davinator and is always on our table at Christmas and Thanksgiving. It’s the perfect dish for holiday entertaining; easy to make, can be made in the days ahead, stores easily. It’s purple red colour looks festive and it is very low fat and high in fibre – a nice contrast with much of the rest of traditional holiday menus.

I make this on Christmas Eve or the day before and refrigerate it in the pot you cooked it in. If it’s cold enough, I leave it in the Davinator’s unheated workshop. It freezes well and makes a fantastic addition to a turkey sandwich on Boxing Day.

Useful equipment for this recipe: a substantial oven ready pot with a lid (le Creuset or similar), a hand held mandoline and an apple corer. I’m not an advocate of giving drawer space to single use gadgets but an apple corer is one of few exceptions – speeds up the preparation of the apples considerably.

Cabbages vary in size so the main ingredients are expressed in relation to the weight of the cabbage. The recipe is flexible and forgiving so feel free to omit or substitute the fruit, pears are also very nice.

Let’s get cooking.

Recipe

Ingredients

1 red cabbage, approximately 1 kilo or 2 pounds, shredded with a knife

Onions or shallots; by weight 50% of the cabbage

Apples or pears; by weight 50% of the cabbage, cored and chopped small

1 clove of garlic, chopped small or forced through a garlic press

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground cloves

45 grams (3 tablespoons) brown sugar

50 mls (3 tablespoons) red wine vinegar

1 tablespoon of butter

Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 150C (300f).
2. Remove the tough outer leaves of the cabbage, quarter it, then coarsely shred with a knife and put to one side. I don’t use a food processor because it tends to produce tiny bits of cabbage and cabbage juice.
3. Core and chop the apples, coat with a teaspoon of lemon juice, set to one side.
4. Thin slice the shallots or onions (the mandoline is a life saver here).
5. Mix the dry spices, garlic and brown sugar.
6. Put 1/3 of the cabbage in the dish. Top with 1/3 of the apples, then 1/3 of the onions. Sprinkle with some of the spice mixture and repeat to use all of the ingredients.
7. Cut the butter into squares and add to the top.
8. Pour the vinegar over the top, put the lid on and put the pan in the oven,
9. The cabbage will cook very slowly for 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Take it out half way through, stir thoroughly, recover and return to the oven.
10. Remove from the oven and keep warm until ready to serve.

Enjoy! Thank you for reading the blog and cooking the recipes. Share photos on Instagram or X (Twitter) tagging @mamadolson.