Christmas isn’t Christmas in our house without a large bowlful of spicy red cabbage.  Delicious hot with most meats, or cold with the leftovers.

This recipe is perfect as it can be made well in advance and popped in the freezer just remembering to take it out the day before you need it, to allow it to defrost slowly.

This year I used my larger slow cooker and doubled the recipe so I would have plenty left over for using in the first few weeks of 2020.  The delicious aroma of this cabbage gently simmering away in the slow cooker filled the house with those lovely Christmassy scents.  My larger slow cooker needed to be on HIGH to reach simmering point and then I balanced it between HIGH and LOW for the cooking period.    This year I did use light brown soft sugar (I try to avoid using refined sugar as much as possible) but I have made similar recipes in previous years using coconut sugar.

INGREDIENTS:

1kg red cabbage
2 white onions, peeled and sliced
4 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and sliced
Zest of 1 orange
2 teaspoons ground mixed spice
100g light brown soft sugar
3 tablespoons cider vinegar
200ml dry cider
25g butter

METHOD:

Turn your slow cooker on to LOW.

Peel away the outer leaves of the cabbage and discard. Quarter the cabbage and remove the thick core. Thinly slice the quarters.

Arrange a layer of the cabbage in the slow cooker, then top with some of the onions, apples, zest, mixed spice, sugar and seasonings. Continue layering up the ingredients until you have used them all up.

Season again and pour over the vinegar and cider and slice the butter onto the top.

Cover and cook for 4 – 5 hours until tender.   Give the cabbage a good stir half-way through cooking.

Simmer for 4 to 5 hours

This cabbage will keep in the fridge for a few days but up to 2 months in the freezer.

Reheat either in a pan or microwave.

Red cabbage as a side to Beef Wellington.

Original recipe found on the BBC Good Food Guide.

NB:  All photographs used in this blog have been taken by me, and are of food I have prepared and served myself.