I am really excited to share this recipe for Braised Red Cabbage with Blackberries today, I have made a version of this many times over the last few years. But I have never shared it, mainly because I rarely shared savoury dishes with you guys and because while it was really good it wasn’t great. I still enjoyed it, and ate it often but it wasn’t perfect. While surfing Pinterest a while ago I came across a similar recipe with a few things added that I hadn’t thought of. I tired it out and it had that certain something I had been looking for.
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Savoury with a hint of sweetness, good enough to enjoy on its own, but even better as a side dish. After all who doesn’t love a pop of colour on their plate at dinner time? So thanks to Red Online, I now have the perfect braised red cabbage with blackberries recipe.
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I went through a phase of doing my original dish in the oven, baking the cabbage low and slow but the great thing about this recipe is that it is done on the stove top all in one pan and its all done and dusted within 45 minutes. And it can be made in advance and just gently reheated for enjoying later.
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I only made one slight change to the original recipe, the original calls for apple juice to be used to cook the cabbage in. I thought about it but apple juice has a lot of sugars added to it, and this recipe already has 2 tablespoons of light brown sugar in it. You can buy the crazy expensive sugar free all natural apple juice but to me that is a little expensive, especially for a dish that is essentially cheap to put together. So I used just plain old tap water, and it still turned out great.
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By all means use apple juice but I found this dish with the added 2 tablespoons and the sweet blackberries was enough to give it that sweet edge.
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This is a really easy dish to put together, shred your cabbage. I did mine by hand but by all means use a food processor if you want. Sauté the onions in a little butter, add in the sugar, spice, red wine vinegar, salt & pepper to taste. Then add in the water and shredded cabbage then cover. You only need to return to it a couple of times through the 20 to 30 minutes cooking time to give it a quick stir. Add in your blackberries give it another 10 minutes and hey presto you have your dish. Easy-peasy!
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Savoury with a hint of sweetness, crunchy and soft its sensory overload, what more could you ask for in a side dish?
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Braised Red Cabbage with Blackberries
Ingredients
- 25 grams unsalted butter 1/8 cup
- 1 medium white onion - finely chopped
- 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon ground mixed spice
- Salt and Pepper to taste
- 150 millilitres water (5/8 cup)
- 500 grams red cabbage - Small to medium sized thinly sliced (17.5 ounces)
- 225 grams blackberries - fresh or frozen (1 and 1/2 cups)
Instructions
- Prep all your vegetables so they are ready and on hand, this will make life a little easier. When cutting my red cabbage I found it best to quarter it then cut out the central core and slice what was left.
- Melt the butter in a large pan over a medium heat, add in the finely chopped onion and fry for 4 to 5 minutes. Keep an eye on them so they don't start to fry but instead go soft.
- Add the dark brown sugar, red wine vinegar, mixed spice, salt & pepper and water to the pan. Give it all a quick stir to mix it all together.
- Add in the cabbage, stir then cover for pot and turn down the heat to a medium low level.
- Return to the pot after 10 minutes to give it another stir.
- After 20 minutes check to see how the cabbage is doing, give it another stir and check to see if it is almost at that perfect tender consistency. Still a little bit stiff in the middle but softening around the edges. If it's still rock hard give it another 10 minutes but not much more.
- When you are happy with it add in the blackberries reduce the heat to low cover the pot again and leave for a further 10 minutes.
- If eating immediately either serve from the pan or decant it into a serving dish.
- Can be made up to a day in advance. Once cooked keep in the fridge and eat by the 3rd day reheating either using a microwave or in a pan over a gentle heat.
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Original recipe can be found at Red Online.
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I’ve never thought of adding blackberries to red cabbage before but it makes perfect sense. This would be perfect with xmas dinner actually!
Hi Natalie, it is a great Christmas dinner side dish. I have made it before for Christmas and it has always gone down well!
Emma, I love your photos and I love that you admit that it wasn’t always perfect. I think we all do a bit of Pinterest searching at times for tutorials to perfect our cooking and I love your writing style. Thanks for sharing an in-depth recipe! 🙂
Hi Pamela, thank you for all your kind words. Where would we be without Pinterest? 😀
Red cabbage and blackberries combo sounds intriguing. What a vibrant and delicious looking dish. AWESOME! 🙂
Hi Anu thank you. I do love it when food is so colourful 😀
This is such a creative dish, Emma! I am a big cabbage fan and love that braised it with blackberries! The colors are so pretty and it looks so comforting an delicious!
Hi Kelly, thank you it certainly is a colourful dish 😀
I love braised cabbage and adding blackberries sounds like a great idea!
Thank you, they go really well together I hope your try it, as I am sure you will love it 😀
This looks absolutely gorgeous, thank you for sharing! Always nice to see some fresh combinations with yummy ingredients.
Hi Sera, thank you 😀 They do go so well together!
Oh yum! I love red cabbage but it’s one of those things I don’t use enough in my kitchen! I’ve never had it with blackberries before!!
Hi Ashley, thank you red cabbage goes really well with blackberries really worth a try 😀
wow..it looks really super with those blackberries!
Hi Angie, thank you I love using blackberries in savoury dishes 😀