Cider-Braised Cabbage Recipe
Braising cabbage and onions in apple cider gives these humble vegetables a lift, while a spoonful of caraway lends a little brightness. Look for tart cooking apples when making this dish. Granny Smith, Gravenstein, and Bramley apples work well. This is excellent served alongside roasted pork, or as an accompaniment to slow-baked beans and brown bread.
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Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons ghee (or clarified butter)
- 1 tablespoon caraway seeds
- 2 medium onions (sliced thin)
- 2 medium apples (sliced thin)
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 cup soft apple cider
- 2 tablespooons raw apple cider vinegar
Equipment
- Braising Dish
Instructions
- Warm the ghee in a Dutch oven or braising dish over medium-high heat . When it melts, toss in the caraway seeds and toast them until fragrant - about 2 minutes. Next, dump the yellow onions into the ghee. Sauté the them for about 6 minutes, until deeply fragrant, and then stir in the salt, apples, and cabbage.
- Turn the heat down to medium, and then pour in the apple cider. Cover the pot and cook until the apples are tender and the cabbage wilts, about 10 minutes. Uncover the pot and stir in the apple cider vinegar. Cook for another 2 to 3 minutes, and then serve hot.
- Store leftovers in a container with a tight-fitting lid in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Notes
NOTE: A nice variation of this dish would be to add bacon, similar to Southern-fried Cabbage.
Amanda R. says
This dish is really tasty and pretty simple to make. Perfect for one of the first cool fall days. And still enjoy re-reading the article.
April says
We make this every year at Thanksgiving. I use red cabbage because it’s a family holiday tradition that I try to keep alive. It’s truly delicious!
Lauren @ Meathead says
What a magical celebration & in the US, no less! Elated to see that the connection with seasonal rhythms--fasting & feasting (!)--is still strong in some American communities.
Meinhilde says
Your writing is so lovely!
Danna says
So beautifully told! I want to come and kiss the green man and dance by the fire! I can not wait to try this recipe! Thanks!
Rose | The Clean Dish says
This makes me so homesick for Germany! The harvest fest sounds magical. I can't wait to try this recipe and share it with friends and family!
Lindsey says
Great to know you celebrate like this over the pond! It's great feeling connected with ancient history, isn't it? This is very similar to how we celebrate in the UK (well, I can only speak for rural south England). We have a green Man, a may day pole with ribbons, flower and feather wreaths, drinking from 6am and Morris dancers to celebrate the start of summer on May Day. In autumn, how people celebrate harvest varies from family to family. Generally, we reap any fruit and vegetables we grow, cook stews and pies (meat as well as fruit ones), make baked apples and toffee apples, give spare food to charity, make mulled wine and cider, and light our fireplaces (for those who still have them). There's also bonfire night/fireworks night/guy fawkes night (same thing, different names), which although it commemorates a historic political act, has pagan origins in its celebration of fire and light. And then Christmas!! I love the changing of the seasons 🙂
Little Miss Prepper says
This is a totally offensive blog. Why are you posting about satanic pagan rituals?
Lynn says
There is nothing offensive about this post. This is how our country, and our ancestors countries (i.e. the U.K) celebrated.
I LOVE that there are some communities still celebrating in the TRADITIONAL ways. After all, we want to maintain tradition, right?
I am making this recipe this week- I love cabbage and am always looking for new recipes to try!
Joanna | WholeGreenLove says
This recipe looks so good! We'll definitely be making this soon.
Thanks for sharing!
Joanna
Melissa @ UnmistakablyFood says
Wow. This is the kind of community and connectedness to nature that we are so lacking in this day and age. I long for this kind of life. I hope your community never changes and I hope there are many more tiny mountain communities just like yours unbeknownst to most of us.
Soli says
Happy Autumn, Jenny!
Nicole Warren says
I made this for our weekly potluck here at Cricket Creek Farm in Williamstown, MA with apples from our land, cider and cabbage from our neighbor, and I used lard from our animals instead of ghee because that is what I had on hand. Thank you for sharing. This dish was delicious.
Kendahl @ Our Nourishing Roots says
These kinds of posts are my favorites out of all the ones you do, Jenny. And I love pretty much everything you do, lol! I wish I could be there in your nature-loving, season-celebrating, real food-eating, company. Gorgeous pictures too, especially the pregnant belly woman, and the colorful masks.
And now I need to find some braising cider 🙂
Jenn @LeftoverQueen says
Fabulous post Jenny! What a wonderful community event! Makes me want to move to your town just for that! 🙂
Brittany says
I absolutely loved this beautiful post! It makes me want to move from sunny Southern California to the mountain lands!
Crystalline Ruby Muse says
This recipe is perfect for our Samhain festival, I think I will make it. And your photos are GORGEOUS!
Suzanne says
Obviously I'm not the only one jealous of your lovely festival. I'm jealous! Totally jealous!!!
wendell says
Looks like a great celebration. I worked at a King Supers store in Denver in 1970 as a teenager and really liked your state. I wish I lived there because I would like to visit your autumn feast.
Plus, your state is a medical cannabis state and God's medicine is more holistic than the synthetic poisons from the big pharmacy corporations.
What a happy and wholesome looking bunch of citizens. Of course, big government frowns on seeing happy and healthy citizens. Telluride has a mushroom festival every year or at least they used to. I never did anything but work seven days a week and go to school when I was in Colorado, but realize now how much I missed working all the time. Love the photos and the post. Thanks
Leanne @ Healthful Pursuit says
Wow, what a spectacular event!
Kim says
Awesome description, I almost felt like I was there. Recipe sounds great. Happy Autumn to all
Mary Collis says
Loved this post and the beautiful celebration pictures. I'll cook this to serve with tonight's dinner. I'm from west of Sydney, Australia and love your website. I cook from it all the time and recommend it to a lot of people.
cat @ NeoHomesteading.com says
This is a truly beautiful post. You can almost smell the cider and smoke! Really wonderful, thanks for sharing!
Nikki says
Crested bueute is such a beautiful place and I have missed several years of the festival but it is so much fun!! The recipe sounds wonderful and can't wait to try it!!
Rose says
Where IS this magical place?! It sounds so magical! What a wonderful celebration! I live in Florida where, despite what the calendar says, it is still summer. I long for such a meaningful celebration of the seasons. Thanks so much for the inspiration!
Claudia S. says
My husband And I have been on a cabbage kick lately. This dish sounds so good and sweet, never thought of adding apples to cabbage. I must give this a try. Thanks!
lyn pointer says
What a lovely post,in some ways I am envious of such wonderful celebrations,(but not of 9 months snow!), I live in Australia, on the South coast of south Australia, we are just going into Spring, from a long and cool winter with lots of rain, I am a founder of our own farmers market, and would love to implement this farm to table dinner, although the community is not what you would call united! I'm just pulling the last few cabbages from my own garden and will try this recipe tonight, then use the rest of my cabbages for a large batch of cultured vegies, I have a stall at our farmers market I make french charcuteie, and other artisan products, I also run a cooking school from time to time, i"m just introducing a new small range of grain free products, out of all the sites to which I subscribe, I love this site best, keep up the good work.
Joan Westaway says
Lyn, I am also in Australia- living in sub-tropic Brisbane. One of my dreams has been to visit around our wonderful land, especially networking with real food, sustainable living folks! With my health and strength returning, this is so close to happening! I'd love to be able to catch up with you and your farmers markets some time soon! Any way we can get together?
I have some organic Chinese cabbage from our Moggill Markets and am off to source sweet apple cider... let you know how it turns out!
Gavin says
What an awesome celebration! I didn't know festivals like that existed anymore. What a cool transport to an older, but wonderful place in history when community meant so much.
Lisa says
At this time of year the voice of the mountains echoes within my heart....You gave me a great sense of 'why.'
Beth says
Great post. I would love to visit your community during this festival. It seems like an amazing experience.
Annie says
This recipe sounds wonderful, and I'll make it tonight! Your post was very heart-warming and enriching. Thanks so much!
Tina says
I love this recipe! I have trouble finding organic apple cider. Since apples can be heavily sprayed, I don't want to take my chances on it. Do you think organic apple juice would sub for the apple cider okay? Thanks for your lovely posts and recipes.
Dhai says
Thank you so much for sharing a little Vinotok with me! My favorite festival of all time!
Thank you too for all the awesome recipes and ideas that you inspire.
Dhai
Lindy says
I just wanted to say your celebration sounds absolutely wonderful. I am a little green with envy truth be told!
I always enjoy your posts, and this one propels me to comment but please keep up the good work after you recover.
Thank you
Lindy
carey says
Me too, Lindy! At first I thought this must in the UK, and I was thinking “hey, but I thought she was in the US!” Yes! Great Article and photos!
Ouida Lampert says
I loved, loved, LOVED this post! Earthy and sweet. Thank you.