FESTIVE RED CABBAGE

Every year on Christmas Day, in addition to spaetzle, potato salad and (vegan) roast, we have my absolute favorite side dish: red cabbage or Blaukraut, as we call it in German. Even if it gives you blue lips and leaves stains on your clothes that never come out, it’s the most Christmassy and hearty side dish I know. Michael didn't know about red cabbage until a few years ago, but ever since he tasted this delicious side dish for the first time, he can hardly keep his hands off it.

So in order for you to be able to enjoy one (or more?) portions of blue cabbage, at Christmas or even now, we’re now going to walk you through the easy process of making your own Blaukraut at home. All you need are these few ingredients:

red cabbage
apples
onion
vegan butter/margarine
cooking wine (red)
vegetable stock
juniper berries, cloves, bay leaves
cranberry jam (optional)
salt + pepper

First of all, of course, you need some red cabbage. Clean it, cut it in half, cut out the stalk and then you can either grate you cabbage or chop it finely. Be careful not to do this on your favorite wooden board, as red cabbage stains quite a bit.

Your next step is to finely dice the apples and the onion. You can also use apple sauce instead of the apples but quite frankly I love me some small chunks of soft and sweet apple in my Blaukraut. Next, you’re going to heat up the butter in a large pot. Add in the chopped apples and onion and sauté for 2 minutes. Now you can add in the red cabbage, at the same time you should add a dash of vinegar so that the cabbage retains its beautiful color. Next, sauté the red cabbage for 10 minutes together with the apples and the onion, stirring occasionally. Then deglaze everything with the cooking wine and some vegetable stock and add in the spices as well. Cover your pot and simmer for 30-35 minutes.

When your Blaukraut is done, you can add in some cranberry jam for an additional sweet-bitter flavour, but only if you want to. Stir, season to taste with salt and pepper and that's it. The Christmassy red cabbage is ready. We always like to make more and freeze the leftovers. That way we always have enough Blaukraut in the house. By the way if you’re willing to wait some extra hours for an even tastier red cabbage you should leave it to marinate overnight. Hope you have fun with the recipe and as always:

Enjoy!

festive red cabbage, red cabbage recipe, vegan red cabbage, vegan christmas recipe

dinner, lunch

Servings: 6

Author: The Vegan Allrounder

Preparation time: 15 MinCooking time: 50 MinTotal time: 1 H & 4 M

Ingredients

800g red cabbage
1 onion
2 small apples/ or 1 large apple
30g vegan butter
2-3 bay leaves
5 cloves (whole)
5 juniper berries (whole)
3 tbsp cranberry jam (vegan)
180ml cooking wine (red)
250ml vegetable stock
1 tbsp vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Wash the red cabbage, halve it, remove the stalk. Either grate the cabbage finely or cut into small pieces.
Core the apples and cut into small cubes. Peel and finely chop the onion.
Heat the butter in a large pot and sauté the apples together with the onion for 2 minutes.
Add the red cabbage and the vinegar (so that the cabbage keeps its colour).
Sauté the cabbage for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add the spices and deglaze with the wine and vegetable stock.
Put the lid on the pot and let the red cabbage simmer for 30-35 minutes.
Finally, stir in the cranberry jam and season with salt and pepper to taste.
The red cabbage tastes best with spaetzle and some gravy.
Enjoy!