Not Just a Man's World

I love red cabbage so I was really excited when Mum found a new recipe for a slightly jazzed up version that would be perfect for a special twist on the usual roast dinner.

The original recipe had all sorts of things that wouldn’t cut it in the paleo world, so I’ve spent a couple of weeks feeding Chris tonnes of red cabbage while I worked out the right levels of alternative ingredients.  Given that Chris isn’t a huge fan of cabbage (red or otherwise) I was pleased that he not only ate it all but even appreciated this new twist on the old traditional dish.

Spicy red cabbage

Ingredients (serves 4-6 people):
450g red cabbage (approximately half a medium sized cabbage), finely chopped
2 medium red onions, finely chopped
2 medium sweet dessert apples, peeled, cored and chopped
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 whole clove, crushed (or ¼ – ½ tsp ground cloves)
2 tsp oregano
Juice of half a lemon (approximately 2 tbsp)

Selecting your apples:

The apples add a contrasting sweetness to the mix and as such I look for the juiciest, sweetest dessert apples available at the time.  In the UK at the moment this seems to be satisfied by the Pink Lady variety, but as the season moves on I will most likely move onto using Royal Gala or Braeburn.  Whatever is ripest and juiciest at the time.

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 150C (this is cooked at a lovely low temperature so I’ve found that it is perfect to cook at the same time as a pot roast, and it goes very well with that sort of roast too).
2. Heat some oil in a pan (or melt a little butter in it) and fry the onions gently over a low heat for 10 minutes until they are golden brown and soft.
3. Add the other ingredients to the pan and mix together well.  I suggest putting the cabbage and apple in and then adding the spices to the centre of the mound so that the spices and herbs don’t end up glued to the sides of the pan.
4. Place the red cabbage mix in an oven dish that has a lid (or create a makeshift lid with foil).
5. Cover and cook in the oven for 2 hours.  If you happen to be around halfway through the cooking time then give it a bit of a mix round at the mid-point of cooking.  I’ve left this in the oven on the timer with a pot roast and come home to it completely cooked and it didn’t seem to suffer from the lack of stirring other than a need for quite a thorough stir to re-blend the spices just before serving, so this isn’t essential.

Red cabbage - perfect with roast

A note on cooking time:

When Mum cooked this for us she cooked it at 170C (fan oven) for about 45 minutes and the cabbage seemed to be cooked through, so you can take this approach if you are in a rush.  However, I’ve found that the longer, slower cooking seems to draw the flavours out more and stops the cinnamon (in particular) from leaving a powdery residue on the cabbage.

Related posts:

1. Paleo recipes: spicy tomato marinade
2. Paleo recipes: roast duck with apple
3. Paleo recipes: spicy beef bolognese
4. Paleo recipes: onion bhaji