How to cook Red Cabbage – a German favorite!

Red cabbage truly is an essential of German fall and winter cuisine. I will admit that most people just buy it as a fully prepared preserve that they only need to warm up, but really – it is neither difficult nor time consuming to cook red cabbage yourself. I will show you here a particularly quick and easy recipe that gives you the original German red cabbage flavor, but saves you the trouble of grating it.

You just want to cook red cabbage right now, not to read about it? Jump down here to the recipe!

If you would like a quick and simple recipe for a white cabbage stirfry, please follow this link.

Red cabbage: A staple in German fall and winter cuisine

For a German, the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of red cabbage is the traditional Christmas day lunch: Roast goose with red cabbage and dumplings (here is a recipe for traditional Christmas Goose, in German). But red cabbage is popular all through fall and winter, and is a good side dish for almost any meat and potato combination, and also for many vegetarian dishes.

For example, cook red cabbage and have it with Kräuterquark (similar to cream cheese, with chives, parsley and chalottes) and Kartoffelpuffer (German hashbrowns). Or with mashed potatoes and creamy mushroom sauce. Or with salt potatoes and meat balls. Or just follow my suggestion from this post and have it with mashed potatoes and oat balls!

Red Sauerkraut? Avoid this mistake when you order red cabbage in Germany

When I did some research of what non-Germans would like to know about German cooking, I saw that a lot of people refer to the way that Germans cook red cabbage as “Red Sauerkraut”. But if you ever order that in a German restaurant, all you will get is a confused look. Yes, it is possible to make Sauerkraut from red cabbage, but it is not commonly done and the result will hardly ever be offered for sale. “Sauerkraut” means “sour cabbage” and always refers to fermented cabbage. You can ferment red cabbage and it will taste more or less than fermented white cabbage, but the color will be a rather unpleasant, faded pink. It is a way to preserve red cabbage when you have too much of it in your garden.

But the warm, dark purple red cabbage that Germans serve with dumplings or other potato dishes is simply “Rotkohl”, the result you receive when you cook red cabbage. It does taste a little bit zesty, but that is because it is made with some sour apples or apple cider vinegar.

A fall recipe for red cabbage

While I am writing this post, Christmas is still more than three months away. The air has become considerably cooler and I am actually sitting beside a nice warm fire that is burning in our heating stove. But there still are many sunny days when we go outside without a coat, and when the bees hum around the September flowers.

The early types of red cabbage are being harvested right now – we don´t have any in our garden, but they are selling beautiful ones on the farmers´ markets, and even the ones from the grocery store are delightfully fresh at this time of year.

Since they are still so fresh and tender, they are ideal for making red coleslaw. And actually, my husband and I like to just cut them up and have them as a snack instead of crisps; but that may not be to everybody´s taste. This is probably the bland and overly simple German food that everybody is talking about… (You should try it, though, you may be surprised.)

However, the best way to prepare red cabbage is, in my opinion, to bake it.

How to prepare red cabbage in no time

There is a reason why the traditional German red cabbage recipe is a holiday recipe – the cabbage needs to be grated or cut finely, which takes ages and makes a mess. So if people want to have red cabbage on a normal weekday or even Sunday, they will usually buy it ready made in a preserve jar and just heat it up. Now as you all know, this is convenient, but has some real drawbacks.

One is that the texture will not be quite what you want it to be like. The cabbage has been cooked to death and has been in the jar for months, it is very soft, almost mushy.

The other disadvantage is that there may be ingredients that you don´t want. In my case, the main concern is artificial sweeteners; and even if those are not in there, there will be sugar.

So here is my solution: Baked red cabbage.

Why you should bake red cabbage

To bake red cabbage, all you need to do is to cut it into circular slices (or half circular, if the cabbage is too big) about as thick as your little finger. You put it on a baking tray and pour evenly over it the marinaded onions you prepared beforehand (any time between the previous evening and half an hour before putting the cabbage into the oven). Then bake for 45 minutes, that´s it. As I said, serve this with any potato dish and meat or savory vegetarian dish. Mushroom sauce is ideal to go with it, but ketchup will actually be fine, too. We don´t always have time to make a sauce from scratch, after all.

Of course you can re-create the traditional German Christmas day flavor with apples (just put slices of one or two zesty apples on the tray, evenly distributed in between the cabbage slices), cloves and bay leaves (these should be part of the marinade for the onions).

But since it is only September now, I wanted something different – according to this season when we still have fresh herbs even in our relatively cool climate. The time for dried spices will come soon enough. Apples are not really ripe yet, and I wanted the recipe to be consistently seasonal, so I used apple cider vinegar. So this “how to cook red cabbage German style” is strictly within its season and place, which means it is also withing the range of traditional German seasoning for red cabbage.

So here, finally, is the recipe.

Red cabbage German-style, but quick: Baked red cabbage

Ingredients

For 2 adults, 1 hungry teenager and 2 children, as a side dish

Red cabbage: ca. 1 kg

Apple cider vinegar: ca. 75 ml

One medium sized onion, or (better) two chalottes

One large garlic clove

1 branch of fresh rosemary (about a teaspoon of fresh rosemary needles). Remove the stem, cut the needles in halves.

salt: 1 teaspoon

pepper: 1 pinch

Olive oil (or your preferred oil): ca. 200 ml

Optional: If you like the sweet-and-sour flavor (of which I am not really a friend), a teaspoon of honey.

Recipe: Baked Red Cabbage

1. Step 2-4 can be done on the previous night or whenever you have time for it, but at least 30 minutes before you begin to bake the cabbage. For example, you can do them before you prepare the main dish, cut other things up etc..
2. Cut the onions or chalottes into fine rings.
3. Put them in a bowl and pour the vinegar over them. Add salt, pepper, chopped or grated garlic, rosemary leaves. Stir well.
4. Pour olive oil on top to make sure the onions are covered, but do not stir any more.
5. Pre-heat the oven to 200 degree Celsius (400 degree Fahrenheit).
6. Cut the red cabbage into slices as thick as your little finger. If the cabbage is too large, cut it in half lengthways before slicing.
7. Put the cabbage slices on a baking tray.
8. Now stir the onion/vinegar/oil mixture and distribute it evenly on the cabbage slices. Cover as much of their surfaces as possible, e.g. using the back of a spoon to spread the oil better.
9. Bake for about 45 minutes. You don´t need to turn the slices around, just go and do something else during this time. But do have a look after 30 minutes to see how much more time they will need.

Enjoy your baked red cabbage!