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

• Author: Simone van den Berg
• Category: Sidedish

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

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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

You can add the apples sooner, depending on your preference. I like mine to have a bite so I add them late, but if you like yours softer, add them right at the beginning of the cooking process.