Easy Slow Cooker Red Cabbage Recipe

This easy slow cooker red cabbage recipe is perfect for Christmas dinner or any meal where you want to serve a delicious veggie side dish.

The sweet and tangy red cabbage is cooked slowly in a crockpot, which saves space on the hob. It's flavoured with apples, onions, and mixed spice, which makes it a perfect match for turkey or gammon.

Simply add all the ingredients to your slow cooker, set it to low, and let it cook for 6 hours. The result is tender, flavoursome braised red cabbage that's ideal with roasts, sausages, or your favourite festive meals.

Plus, this recipe is incredibly versatile-you can make it ahead and freeze it, cook it the day before and reheat in the microwave, or let it slow cook fresh on the day for ultimate convenience.

Looking for another easy slow cooker side dish? Try my easy slow cooker roast potatoes recipe.

Jump to:

• ✔️ Why should you try it?
• 🥘 Ingredients
• 🔪 Instructions
• 🍴 Serving suggestions
• 📖 Variations
• 🥡 Storage
• ❓ FAQs
• 😋Related recipes
• Recipe
• 💬 Comments

✔️ Why should you try it?

1. This slow cooker braised red cabbage recipe is incredibly simple and requires very little prep work. Just toss the ingredients into your slow cooker and let it do the work for you.
2. It's perfect for serving as a side dish at your Christmas dinner or any other meal.
3. The combination of apples, onions, and mixed spice gives this dish a delicious and unique flavour.
4. By cooking the red cabbage in a slow cooker, you'll free up valuable hob space for other dishes.
5. It can be made ahead of time and reheated when you're ready to serve it. This makes it a great option for busy festive meals when you need to prepare multiple dishes at once.

🥘 Ingredients

Red Cabbage - 1 medium red cabbage, shredded.

Apples - I like to use Bramley apples for their tart flavour but Granny Smiths would also work. The apples need to be peeled and chopped.

Onions - 2 thinly sliced onions, or substitute with red onions if you prefer.

Dark Brown Sugar - Substitute with light brown sugar or caster sugar.

Cider Vinegar - Or use white or red wine vinegar. The vinegar helps to keep the pH of the cabbage acidic, thus ensuring its vibrant colour through the long cooking time.

Mixed Spice - or use ground cinnamon and nutmeg.

Salt and Pepper - seasoning.

🔪 Instructions

One: Place all of the ingredients into your slow cooker basin, switch on to low, and cook for 6 hours.

🍴 Serving suggestions

Slow cooker red cabbage is a delicious addition to your roast or Christmas dinner. Serve it with turkey, gammon, slow cooker roast beef, polenta roast potatoes, honey roasted root vegetables, creamed cabbage, sausage meat stuffing, roasted Brussels sprouts, carrot and swede mash, devils on horseback, and bread sauce.

It also makes a tasty side dish for sausage casserole, slow cooker lamb breast, and pork chops.

📖 Variations

• Add 100g of dried cranberries to the red cabbage for a delicious sweet taste.
• Add the juice of 1 orange or lemon.
• Grate in a small amount of fresh nutmeg. Star anise, caraway seeds, juniper berries and allspice can also be used to add flavour.
• Add a splash of port or red wine.
• Swap the apple cider vinegar for balsamic vinegar.
• Top with a few knobs of butter and sprinkle over crispy bacon and fresh herbs, such as thyme leaves, just before serving.

🥡 Storage

Allow the slow cooker red cabbage to cool completely before storing. Keep it in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4-5 days.

For longer storage, it can be frozen for up to 3 months-simply thaw in the fridge overnight before reheating. Reheat gently in a saucepan or microwave until piping hot.

❓ FAQs

😋Related recipes

More delicious slow cooker recipes to try.

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