Braised Red Cabbage
A sweet & savoury braised red cabbage. Cooked slowly in apple juice, vinegar, spices & sugar.
A great addition to any roast dinner.
Braised Red Cabbage
A super easy side dish to make but a fantastic edition to any roast dinner. Braised red cabbage, is sweet, tangy & full of flavour. Here’s how to make it.
Thinly Slice The Cabbage
To cook properly, the red cabbage needs to be cut not too thin & not too thick. 3-5mm thick slices tend to work best. But most importantly, the cabbage needs to be cut evenly.
There’s a couple ways that you can do this.
The first step is to quarter & core the cabbage then remove any dry outer layers. If you’re confident with your knife skills, you can slice then thinly each quarter cabbage by hand using a sharp knife.
On the other hand, an easier, quicker way to slice the cabbage is to use a slicing attachment on a food processor.
Braising
In order to braise the red cabbage, there’s some stuff we need to add.
For sweetness we’re adding in dark brown sugar & maple syrup. For extra flavour, we use cinnamon, star anise, bay leaves & cloves. And for the braising liquid we’re using a combination of apple juice & vinegar (for extra tanginess).
To cook, we bring the pan of cabbage up to a simmer then transfer it to a low temperature oven to cook until just starting to soften. We still want the cabbage to have a bit of bite to it, so it is important that it is not completely soft.
The final stage is to reduce the remaining liquid down into a glaze. This is what makes the braised cabbage sticky! A small amount of butter is added at the end to finish.
More Roast Dinner Recipes
Braised Red Cabbage
Equipment
- Large Saucepan
Ingredients
- 1 Red Cabbage
- 200 g Apple Juice
- 100 g Dark Brown Sugar
- 80 g Red Wine Vinegar
- 20 g Balsamic Vinegar
- 10 Cloves
- 3 tbsp Maple Syrup
- 2 Star Anise
- 2 Bay Leaves Fresh Or Dried
- 1 Cinnamon Stick
- 50 g Unsalted Butter To Finish
Instructions
- Preheat an oven to 100°c.
- Quarter & core the red cabbage then slice thinly & add to a large saucepan.
- Add the sugar, vinegars, apple juice, maple syrup, star anise, bay leaves, cloves & cinnamon to the cabbage then season generously with salt & pepper.
- Put a lid on the saucepan, set over a medium heat & bring to a simmer.Simmer for 5 minutes then transfer to the cabbage to the preheated oven & cook until the cabbage is just starting to soften, around 20 minutes.
- Next, take the lid off the cabbage, place over a medium heat & cook until the remaining liquid has reduced enough to glaze the cabbage. Stir in the butter, season with salt & pepper then serve.
Notes
Prepare the cabbage as above. Use the boiling plate to bring the cabbage to a simmer then transfer to the simmering oven to cook.
Once the cabbage has started to soften, return to the boiling plate to reduce & finish. Slice the cabbage as thin as possible. This can either be done by hand or with a food processor’s slicing attachment. Make sure not to overcook the cabbage – it should be just tender.
