Apfelrotkohl (Red Cabbage with Apples), also called Rotkohl or Blaukraut, is a favorite side dish of ours. It is a traditional German recipe. We like to grow our own red cabbage and prepare the dish once the cabbage is harvested in the fall and there are lots of apples to go with it, too. Then I freeze it and it is all ready for winter. Sure, you can also make the red cabbage recipe fresh anytime.
Apfelrotkohl for us starts with cabbage seeds in early spring, tending to the plants, harvesting, and finely cooking a big pot of it. The cabbage we grow in our short growing season never gets very big, so I often used 2 cabbages for the amount of one.
If it fills the pot to the edge, do not worry, it cooks down quite a bit.
To make this yummy treat is way simpler than one would think. The only trouble is the red color on your hands, the cutting board, and everything else that the red cabbage would touch. But it is so worth it!
Let’s make it.
- 1 onion (or a quarter of a huge onion, you need about 125g)
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil (can be substituted with water if you cook oil-free)
- 1 big red cabbage (or several small 1250g)
- 5 apples (500g)
- 1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
- 5 cloves
- ¼ - ½ cup sugar, or 2 TB -1/3 cup honey (depending on taste).
- ¼ cup apple cider vinegar
- Sautee chopped onions in oil or water
- Add chopped cabbage, cook till it cooks down (ca. 10 minutes)
- Season
- Add apples
- Cover, turn down the heat to medium to low, and let simmer for 20 - 30 minutes
- Stir occasionally
- Taste, season some more if needed
- Enjoy
Serve the Apfelpotkohl for example with mashed potatoes and mushroom gravy. It’s so good!
Freezing the Apfelrotkohl for winter
We freeze the apfel rotkohl in portions for winter. Recycled plastic containers are great. Freezer bags can also be used. In the picture above I doubled the recipe. One batch makes about 9 potions.
To reheat, we take the apfe rotkohl out of the container and put it frozen into a pot with some water at the bottom and heat on medium-low until hot.
Bonus: Fermented Red Cabbage with Apple Salad
Even though we love the Apfelrotkohl (Red Cabbage with Apples) Recipe, we also love the row version of it with fermented red cabbage.
I use fermented red cabbage, fresh apples, chopped red onions, and hemp seeds. Optional maple syrup can be used to sweeten it. Just mix and enjoy.
A must-have book for fermented vegetables is Fermented Vegetables: Creative Recipes for Fermenting 64 Vegetables & Herbs in Krauts, Kimchis, Brined Pickles, Chutneys, Relishes & Pastes
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I am sure the recipe is delicious! I love apples cooked in recipes and mixed with cabbage sounds even tastier! Way to go for starting Christmas side dish earlier!
Oh yes, apples and cabbage go well together and so good for you.
Cabbage is one of my favorite side dishes – raw or cooked. I like how this recipe can be made and frozen ahead of time. I try to make everything ahead of time that I can. Thanks for sharing.
I love apples and cabbage raw and fermented too. But for Christmas we cook it.
This sounds really good. My whole family likes a good pot of cabbage but we normally cook the green head. I’ve never tried cooking red cabbage but it sounds good with the apples. I had no idea you could freeze cooked cabbage. So glad you shared.
A simple Christmas almost sounds like a dream in today’s hectic society!
It is not a dream here, and we love it this way. Try red cabbage, it is so yummy and good for you. By the way, the plant looks gorgeous in a flower garden, too. It is like a yummy flower head ;). In the winter, when there is less to bloom, grow red cabbage!
I bet this is fantastic with pork chops! Also, your homegrown cabbages are gorgeous!
Thank you, growing red cabbage is a lot of fun.
I have no idea how to pronounce that (LOL) and I’m not a fan of cabbage typically, but red cabbage and apples sounds interesting! I would definitely try this!
The unpronounceable yummy side dish ;).
Thanks for linking up with us at the #HomeMattersParty – we hope to see you again next week! 🙂
I’m not big on apples, but I remember my mom and grandma making this dish, and it always smell good. We had lots of red cabbage at our house in varying preparations. Recipes that can be cooked ahead for the holidays are a wonderful thing! Thanks for the recipe. 🙂
~Lorelai
Life With Lorelai
I thought you would remember this dish.
Thanks so much for sharing with us at the #homematters linky party! We’re back on January 9 🙂 We’d love for you to join us then!
This looks delicious! Thanks for sharing at Simple Lives Thursday! 🙂
You are welcome, it is a yummy dish.
Childhood memories are coming alive … My grandma used to cook all sorts of yummy things, this is one of them. While I am writing this my apfelrotkohl is sizzling along on the stove. I have put some bay leaves in for that extra tang and the smells are wonderful.
Thanks for posting this recipe. Believe it or not I have consumed a lot of that dish in my early years, but this is the first time I am cooking it myself … fourty seven years on. I am grateful. 🙂
You have some great memories. Hope it taste as good as you remember it to be.