The best braised German red cabbage, seasoned and cooked to perfection with spices and shredded apple.
This healthier side dish can be easily recreated at home.
Read up my useful tips in the post and follow the from-scratch recipe at the bottom of the post with the video and process shots further below.
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📕 What is German red cabbage?
The German red cabbage is a well seasoned braised cabbage side dish.
This dish and red cabbage in German are known as rotkohl, blaukraut, rotkraut or blaukohl.
The German red cabbage name depends on the region in Germany, and German-speaking Austria and Switzerland.
Only red cabbage is used to prepare this side dish because of the red (or so-called purple/blue) cabbage results in a more flavorful dish, than white cabbage.
This side dish is commonly served during fall and winter with a main course meat meal.
📜 Flavor profile
The characteristic flavors of a traditional german style red cabbage are aromatic, sweet, sour and salty.
Apple is a common addition to this cabbage side dish and enhances it greatly with a fruity sour taste.
Sweetness, to balance the sour ingredients, is added in the form of brown sugar (you can use regular sugar too or honey).
The combination of spices supports the red cabbage in every way.
Bay Leaves are well known in the soup making world and will add comforting flavors into your red cabbage.
Caraway Seeds have a unique flavor and are a real game-changer if you add them whole to your cabbage.
Juniper berries will infuse your cabbage all the more with a fruity touch and they complement the bay leave aroma.
🔪 How to cook it?
This is hands down the best german red cabbage recipe ever.
I have perfected it further over the years!
You will need shredded red cabbage and shredded cabbage, as well as a handful of seasonings.
The full printable recipe and video with detailed ingredients and instructions are located at the end of this post.
Follow the 3 simple steps at a glance.
Step 1
Keep your red cabbage and apple shredded ready.
Heat up a pan and cook your onion slices soft with the butter/fats.
Add the bay leaves, caraway seeds (or cumin seeds) and juniper berries.
Step 2
Throw in the red cabbage, mix and combine over the heat.
Add the apple, brown sugar and apple cider vinegar into the pot and mix well
Season with black pepper and salt. Pour in the stock as well and mix.
Cook your red cabbage for about 15-20 minutes uncovered.
Step 3
To prepare the slurry (which will help to thicken the dish) combine all-purpose flour with water and pour it all into the sauteed red cabbage.
Cook a little more until you are satisfied with the result, take from the heat, pick out the juniper berries and bay leaves and serve your rotkohl recipe as a side dish.
You may garnish it with a dash of sour cream, fresh cream, some whole caraway seeds and fresh parsley.
🍴 Serving
The German red cabbage is a fall side dish that means it goes well with anything that is in season in fall.
Traditionally the braised red cabbage is served with a roast, or with a deer ragout.
We love the sweet and sour flavors with...
- pork roast
- roasted sausages such as Bratwurst, Frankfurter, and Wiener
- with fish (even breaded fish sticks!)
- veal cordon bleu
- a Schnitzel such as the classic Wienerschnitzel or the Jägerschnitzel (meat cutlet in mushroom sauce).
- deer goulash gravy
- roasted duck
- roasted turkey with stuffing
Basically the german braised cabbage can be served instead of Sauerkraut too, which is rather common South Germany and Austria.
💡 Vegan options
To make this cabbage side dish vegan, use plant-based oils instead of the butter.
German food is quite heavy and often while includes meat at every meal but vegan serving options are getting popular in Germany too!
If you eat vegan, serve the red cabbage side dish with other vegan german side dishes such as the warm German potato salad or German Potato pancakes.
❄️ Freezing
Yes.
Prepare the dish as per instructions and let it cool down.
Place the german cabbage dish into a freezer-friendly container with a lid and store in the freezer.
You can create smaller batches too or even cook up more for a later date.
A small quantity of german braised red cabbage can enhance another meat main course meal greatly!
To defrost the cabbage, keep it in the fridge overnight to thaw slowly or defrost with the help of a thawing plate or use your microwave.
👁️ More cabbage recipes
- German Coleslaw
- Low Carb Cabbage Sausage Soup
- Red cabbage grape mandarin juice
- Purple cabbage salad by momsdish.com
📖 Recipe
German Red Cabbage with Apple Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 Tablespoon Butter or clarified animal fats
- 1 medium Onion sliced
- 3 small Bay leave or 1 large
- 1 Tablespoon Caraway Seeds Whole or Cumin Seeds
- 5 Juniper Berries
- 1 pound Red Cabbage shredded
- 1 medium Apple shredded
- 1 Tablespoon Brown Sugar
- 2 Tablespoon Apple Cider Vinegar
- Salt to taste
- ¼ Teaspoon Black Pepper Ground
- 2 cup Water mixed with concentrated Stock
For the slurry to thicken the dish
- 1 cup Water
- 1 Tablespoon All-purpose Flour
Instructions
- Heat up a pot with the butter or clarified fats and cook your onion slices soft.
- Add in the bay leaves, caraway or cumin seeds, and juniper berries and stir cook for a minute to allow the spices to unfold their flavors.
- Throw in the shredded red cabbage and mix well over medium-low heat.
- Add in the shredded apple with the sugar and vinegar and combine over medium heat.
- Season with salt and black pepper.
- Pour in your stock and combine everything.
- Cook your cabbages soft over medium-high heat. This may take about 15 to 20 minutes.
- Combine all-purpose flour and water to a smooth slurry. We need this to thicken the red cabbage dish.
- Pour the slurry into the cabbage and combine. Cook further until liquids have reduced and you are satisfied with the result.
- Pick out the bay leave and juniper berries and discard.
- Serve hot with some sour cream or fresh cream, caraway seeds and fresh parsley
Notes
- Use a sour variety of apple such as granny smith because you want those sour flavors that will bring out the taste of the cabbage, balance the dish and help to keep your cabbage bright red.
- The flour and water slurry is kind of optional. I add it because it helps to bind the liquids of the german red cabbage dish.
- The addition of acidity such as vinegar, prevents the cabbage from loosing it's bright purple red colors. Red cabbage is like a natural PH indicator. Red is acidity and blue base.
I have eaten this as a side dish all my life. (76) One big difference between your recipie and the way my Danish mother made it is the 2 c broth (thus the need for slurry). If the liquid from the onions, apples, cabbage and vinegar was insufficient, my mother would add a little orange juice, (1/4 c), cover and cook on low for about 15 minutes until cabbage is wilted but still crisp.
Always served for holiday meals and more from October to March, hot or cold.
Yeah, it makes a great autumn/winter side dish. Thanks for sharing your mum's danish version of this dish.
Love this recipe. We've had this in our family for years. The other dish I am looking for a definitive recipe for is Cheovasch (Translates to old shoes) It's a pork chop, rice, tomatoes, green pepper, onions, salt, pepper, and maybe Paprika. It's a Hungarian Austrian dish but I have not been able to find a recipe for it online. I once found a person who has had it. they said its one of those family dishes that vary by region. I would appreciate any information you have on it, its origins and a definitive list of ingredients.
Hi Patrick, I have never heard of this but it sounds like Reisfleisch or Letscho. It might be Hungarian maybe because the word doesn't sound Austrian german at all. Sorry, I don't have more info Patrick but I will keep an eye out for it.
NOTE I did not have juniper berry. However, it was so tasty my three kids loved it! Due to allergies, I substituted sugar to 4 sweet drop stevia, flour to arrow root powder and no butter sautéed in stock.
THANK YOU for sharing!
Hi Nevaeh, thanks for sharing your experience and your allergy modifications. It's great to hear that your kids loved it as much as we did when we were small. 🙂
Liebe Helene - why did I always think you lived in Goa???? Rotkraut, red cabbage etc. we eat at least once a week even here in Kerala - mainly with Pork, also chicken, and boiled potatoes, Spaetzle or Oberschlesische Kloesse. And I assure you, it is too a very traditional side dish in Germany!!!.
PS Like your photography 🙂
Hallo Carina,
Well I do live in Goa but right now I am in Europe for another month. 🙂 I make Austrian/German food in Goa too but not when it gets too hot, I prefer this cuisine in winter in Goa. Now you need to tell me more about the Oberschlesische Klösse!
Thank you for your words.
My recipe is similar but I either use bacon or schmaltz instead of butter. And I add a few more juniper berries--they are important.
I love red cabbage, but never had a recipe that sounded good to me. Your recipe sounds delicious! I will be trying this soon. I loved the red cabbage at the very popular restaurant in Chicago, The Berghoff. Thanks for this recipe!
I disliked so many vegetables, it's not even funny. I remember dad would threaten me and sit next to me until I finished the vegetables. The worst of all was eggplant and okra.
Surprisingly, I love every kind of vegetable now and I love this braised cabbage.
Looks really nice.
Okra, ugh....
The older you get the more delicious these veggies taste. Okra is a tough one because it's not always cooked the right way. Okra has that slime coming out but if you add lemon juice or vinegar to your okra, it breaks down the slime completely and okra starts to taste amazing! 🙂
Funny, but there are so many things that I ate when I was a kid that I no longer like as an adult. My sons, too. But one thing I have always loved is cabbage in almost any form. I love the sweet and sour side to this salad and can see it served slightly warm in the winter and cool in the summer for a picnic. Beautiful!
I had some raw red cabbage the other day...love your braised version..so much more flavourful!
Ciao Helene, sei sempre bravissima, ti faccio i miei complimenti. Buona domenica, baci
M.G.
I make my red cabbage with the whole onion peeled in the center with the red cabbage and all the condiments around it and then I put peppercorns into the onion into the onion like maybe seven or eight of them to give it a really good flavor
Thanks for sharing your version with us Rosemarie.
I disliked cabbage. I would visit my aunt's house and it always smelled of cooked cabbage and I just wouldn't eat anything that smelled that bad. 🙂
Now I really like it but you still won't find me eating boiled cabbage. I'd eat this red cabbage dish in a heartbeat though!
Hi Helene!
I just popped in to wish you a Happy Birthday and it looks like I'm the one getting the present! I love red cabbage but funny thing is, it wasn't something I ever had as a child. The only cabbage I remember having is stuffed!!! This sure looks good!
Thank you so much for sharing and a very happy Birthday to YOU!
I would love to eat this cabbage... even with rice and curry. 🙂
I just love red cabbage, German-style!! Your photo and post caught my attention and now I'm craving this. It will be a part of my family's holiday meals.
One of my favourites, Helene! I love red cabbage this way xox
I read somewhere that children are more sensitive to "bitter" and "sour" flavors than adults. Not only that, because they are smaller, their tongues are also smaller, which means the nodes (or whatever) that are flavor receptors are closer together, intensifying flavors, particularly bitter ones. One reason why many children, although they like chocolate, don't much like really dark chocolate - too bitter. Anyway, this is such a lovely way to use red cabbage! Really flavorful. Something I probably would not have liked as a child, but would gobble up now!
Fantastic! That is something we also cook here in Switzerland. I love red cabbage prepared in that manner.
Cheers,
Rosa