Christmas Red Cabbage Recipe

Every year I make the same Christmas red cabbage recipe because my family always requests it. I roll my eyes and say ok with a sigh , but secretly I love making it. There are three reasons for this;

1. I always make it ahead of time and just pop it in the freezer. I usually make it at the end of November or beginning of December and it just smells of Christmas when it’s cooking, so it really gets me in the Christmas spirit!

2. This recipe freezes incredibly well and I just take it out of the freezer on Christmas Eve and have a little smile to myself that it’s all ready for the big day.

3. It tastes amazing! It smells and tastes of Christmas with the cloves, apple and cinnamon.

So here is how I make my Christmas red cabbage. You will need a casserole dish with a tight fitted lid.

Ingredients - Serves 6

1 red cabbage quarter and finely chopped

1 large red onion, halved and sliced

3 cooking apples peeled, cored and cubed

1 garlic clove crushed

8 cloves ground in pestle and mortar

½ teaspoon cinnamon

A pinch of freshly grated nutmeg, or dried nutmeg power

1 tablespoon of red wine vinegar

3 tablespoons of brown sugar

About 15g of butter

Method

I love a simple recipe and this one is just that.

In a bowl put sliced cabbage, crushed garlic, brown sugar, cinnamon and ground cloves and combine. I usually just use my hands.

Put a layer of the red cabbage mix into the bottom of the casserole dish, then a layer of apple and onion. Continue layering until all the ingredients are used.

Pour over the red wine vinegar and dot the top with butter. Pop in the oven (Oven 150c, fan 130c, gas 3 ) for approx. 2 ½ hours removed a couple of times to stir.

At the end of the cooking time, remove it from the oven and allow the red cabbage to cool.

Once cool turn into a freezer container and label and pop in the freezer and tick it off the Christmas to do list!