Cooking red cabbage can be done in a variety of ways. Find out how to cook red cabbage to perfection with this handy guide.
Cooking red cabbage can be done in a variety of ways. Find out how to cook red cabbage to perfection with this handy guide.
Of all the side dishes that grace our dinner tables, deep purple red cabbageis perhaps the most striking. There are a number of ways to cook red cabbage but the most common are to braise or pickle it, although it’s also delicious raw in winter salads and coleslaws. Red cabbage is full of vitamins (A, C and K), minerals and antioxidants so eating it raw or juicing it also provides a fantastic health boost.
Perhaps one of the more unusual qualities of red cabbage is that its juice can act as a home-made pH indicator: it turns red in acidic solutions, blue in neutral and greenish-yellow in basic solutions. This sensitivity to acidity causes regional variations in colour – the more acidic the soil, the redder the cabbage, while more neutral soils produce a deeper purple colour.
Red and green cabbage can be used interchangeably in most recipes. The difference between cooking green cabbage and red cabbage is just one extra step. The compounds that give red cabbage its color, called anthocyanins, are water-soluble and will turn an unappetizing blue color when cooked.
How to make red cabbage slaw
There are a huge number of different ways to make a red cabbage slaw. For the main ingredients, you can combine red and green cabbages with carrots for a more multi-coloured bowl, or keep to just red cabbage for simple, deep purple salad.
The dressing is equally flexible. Lemon juice, dill, red onion, sesame and caraway for example will give the slaw a more eastern European taste, whilst this classic and versatile combination of coriander and lime works as well with tacos as it does banh mi.Ingredients
Add the cabbage, herbs, chilli and spring onion to a large bowl2
Whisk the olive oil, lime juice and salt together and season with a few good grindings of black pepper3
Pour the dressing over the salad and mix to combine. Taste the salad and adjust the amount of lime and salt to taste – we added an extra 1/2 tablespoon of lime juice and an extra pinch of salt4
You can serve this straight away, but ideally let it sit for at least 30 minutes. This will allow the cabbage to soften and wilt down slightly, as the salt draws out its moisture5
Leftovers will keep for around 5 days in the fridge. The slaw will soften slightly as time goes on, but will retain its crunch
How do you boil red cabbage?
Red cabbage can also be boiled. To preserve the crunch, cook in salted boiling water with a teaspoon of vinegar for 5 minutes unless a softer consistency is desired in which case cook for a little longer. Alternatively, red cabbage is very good cooked sous vide as the cabbage will become tender without losing its shape or texture. In this Peruvian pork chop recipes from Robert Ortiz, boiled cabbage is blended into a dramatic purple purée.
Can you cook red cabbage the same as green cabbage?
FAQ
Does cooked red cabbage taste the same as green cabbage?
Can red cabbage be boiled like green cabbage?
Can you substitute red cabbage for green cabbage in a recipe?
Does cooked red cabbage taste good?