Learning to Like Vegetables - Red Cabbage
This week’s installment of Learning to Like Vegetables highlights a recipe with nearly endless variations. I provide it only to suggest a starting point for you to come up with your own perfect mixture of ingredients. However, to start, we need one key ingredient - red cabbage.
This week’s installment of Learning to Like Vegetables highlights a recipe with nearly endless variations. I provide it only to suggest a starting point for you to come up with your own perfect mixture of ingredients. However, to start, we need one key ingredient - red cabbage.Most people know cabbage as an occasional garnish for salads and an ingredient in coleslaw. If you’re anything like me, you used to pick the offending red bits out of your salad, however, I’ve recently discovered that when cooked properly, I love this veggie.
1 cup of cabbage has a mere 27 calories, 2 grams of fiber, and 7 grams of carbohydrates. It also comes packed with 84% of your RDA of Vitamin C.
Cabbage as a garnish is all well and good, but this series is about learning to like vegetables as a significant part of your meal. For that, I rely on one of my favorite ingredients: red wine. Heart healthy here we come!
Braised Red Cabbage
- 1 head red cabbage (any size will do)
- Add some minced garlic for a richer flavor.
- Use only red wine vinegar and add a little extra sugar. Cook with the lid off the pot instead of on to caramelize the mixture slightly.
- Mix some cornstarch and water together in a bowl with a whisk to remove all of the clumps. Stir this mixture in when you add the apples for a thicker sauce.
- Add a pear in addition to or instead of the apples.
- Add some minced ginger and replace the red wine with white wine.
Half a red onion
1-2 apples (any semi-tart apple will do)
1 tbsp oil of your choice
Water
Red wine and/or red wine vinegar
1 tsp sugarCoarsely chop the red cabbage and red onion. Peel and thinly slice the apples.
In a medium saucepan, heat a tablespoon of your favorite oil. I like grapeseed, but any relatively light oil will do. Add the chopped cabbage and onion to the pan and stir until it is just slightly wilted, about 2 minutes.
Add a little bit of water and 1/4 cup of red wine and some red wine vinegar. I can’t tell you exactly how much to add because that’s really dependent on how strong you want your cabbage mixture and how much cabbage you use. Start with about a quarter cup of red wine or a little less red wine vinegar. If you don’t have red wine on hand (shame on you), you can also use ONLY red wine vinegar.
Cover the cabbage mixture and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 10-15 minutes, or until the cabbage is soft.
Add the sliced apples and a teaspoon of sugar. If you want to lower the glycemic index of the dish, you can also use agave nectar. How much sweetener you use is completely up to you. If I’m feeling in a particularly sweet mood, or I’m having this dish with a bland or spicy main dish, I’ll add a bit extra sugar or agave nectar. If I’m serving this with a sweet or sour dish, I’ll back off on the sugar a bit.
Simmer until the apples are tender, another 5-10 minutes. Serve.
Now I talked about variations earlier. Some of the variations you can try are:
Have fun! Post your variation in the comments!
