Braised Red Cabbage with Apple and Caraway Seeds

The thought of cooking cabbage had never crossed my mind until two red cabbages were given to me this past September. My sister-in-law had a fridge full of fresh produce from their farm share the day before leaving for vacation so she unloaded them onto us...hello, vegetables-I've-never-cooked-before!

I didn't even have a vague idea of what to do with those red cabbages. My only exposure to cabbage was in the form of cabbage rolls (mmm!), which I felt was too complex a recipe for my amateur recipe book. So I did what I always do when looking for a good recipe: check Orangette's blog. It's not a surprise that I found a recipe that has a high deliciousness to difficulty ratio; the most important quality of a recipe, in my opinion. And if you're reading this thinking, ugh, cabbage, while crinkling your nose, you need to read Molly's blog post that accompanies this recipe before judging or dismissing cabbage!

I used one of the cabbages for this recipe, thinking that I would try another cabbage recipe with the other, but after tasting this (and also realizing how easy it is!), I decided to make another batch the next day (:

To prepare the cabbage, I started by taking off the outer, wilted leaves until only the crisp, deep purple leaves were left and gave it a quick rinse.

Then, I chopped off the stem, quartered it, and cut the core out.



Molly says to cut the cabbage into thin slices but I missed that part the first time around...and the second time around chose to leave them quartered to preserve a tiny bit of crunch that I enjoyed from batch one.

Look at those intricate waves of purple...

After going through a phase where I tried out countless recipes with a bunch of ingredients I had to scour the grocery store for, I've decided to leave those recipes be and collect recipes that include ingredients that are already on our grocery list. I loved that I could try out this recipe the day I got the cabbages because I had everything at home already!

Another plus to this recipe is that after the quick prep work, you throw everything into the Dutch oven and wait. Meaning, you have plenty of time to fry up some spicy Italian sausages or make the perfect soft-boiled egg (what I had for dinner that night, then breakfast the next day) to accompany the cabbage. Perfecto!

I usually don't follow recipes when it comes to salt content so the only difference with the recipe below and Orangette's is that I don't add the salt.

Mmm...the best part is the caramelized sauce-that's-more-of-a-rub that's left behind. Just the right amount of sweetness from the apple, with a full flavour from the caraway seeds and onions, to layer onto the not-too-soft cabbage. !!!

Braised Red Cabbage with Apple and Caraway Seeds  Slightly adapted from Orangette's delicious recipe

INGREDIENTS
1	red cabbage, quartered and cored
2 tbsp	olive oil
1	small onion, chopped
1	apple, peeled, cored, and grated
3 tbsp	apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp	honey
¼ tsp	caraway seeds

DIRECTIONS
1	Chop onions; peel, core and grate apple; prep cabbage.
2	Heat oil in a Dutch oven over medium-low heat.
3	Cook onions in the warmed Dutch oven until they become translucent and slightly golden.
4	Add apple, vinegar, honey, caraway seeds, and cabbage and cover. Cook over medium-low heat for about an hour, until the cabbage is soft but not falling apart.
5	Yields roughly four servings. Tasty hot, warm, or straight form the fridge the next day!

Let me know if you try out this recipe and if you love it as much as I do!