Sidedish: Red cabbage with apple and chestnuts
Growing up I remember that my mum used to make cabbage quite often. Remember she was never a kitchen princess and in general her dishes lacked – well – a lot really. So one of my favorites at the time was red cabbage with blood sausage. Funny enough I never realized what it was actually made of. It never occurred to me that it was – in fact – made from blood. I’m pretty sure I would have refused to eat it, had I known! Not that it would have been hard to guess with a name that has “blood” in it, but it was just one of those things I didn’t think about.
So I liked it. A lot. It seems to have lost it’s appeal to a lot of people in the Netherlands as it is a bit harder to find these days. Not that I’ve actually tried. I forgot all about blood sausage until Esmee and I made this red cabbage with apple and chestnuts. Delicious as a sidedish to – for instance – turkey or a good sausage (blood or otherwise). It’s also a very affordable dish so if you’re living on a budget one single cabbage will feed a family of four.
I added apple and chestnuts here but you can opt to go for the apple only as that is traditional, but I like to add chestnuts as the flavors work really well together.
Red cabbage with apple and chestnuts
Ingredients
- 1 red cabbage
- butter
- 250 gr of chestnuts cooked
- 2-3 apples
- 4 tbsp of balsamic vinegar
- juice of 1 lemon
- 2 tbsp of sugar
- pepper
- salt
Instructions
- Slice the cabbage finely or let a machine do the work for you. Cut the chestnuts into smaller pieces, peel the apples and cut them into pieces.
- Take a bit pan and melt a good size chunk of butter. Add the cabbage and fry for a bit while stirring to make sure all cabbage has a layer of butter around it. Once done add a very small amount of water into the pan. It doesn't need a lot as the cabbage will release moisture as well.
- Let the cabbage cook til done to your liking. 20-30 minutes depending on the size of the cabbage. Add apples and chestnuts, combined with the balsamic, lemon and sugar. Let it all cook together for a bit before tasting and adding pepper and salt to your liking.
Notes
Disclaimer
The nutritional values above are calculated per portion. The details are based on standard nutritional tables and do not constitute a professional nutritional advice.
Scrumptious and wonderfully wintery! I love cabbage and especially red cabbage. A delicious side dish.
Cheers,
Rosa