Krautsalat (German cabbage salad)

Krautsalat is one of the things S always buys and eats loads of when he visits Germany. I’d never tried to make it for him before but we had an excess of cabbage and it seemed like a good idea. He’d been into caraway recently so I though it should be the kind with caraway in it. This recipe seemed like just the thing.

We had a hyper German dinner, with this and some boil in the bag knoedel from Aldi - surprisingly good boiled, cooked, then fried in slices with onion and mushrooms. S was v enthusiastic about both, I should make krautsalat again... maybe I should even try making knoedel from scratch?!

1 kg white cabbage 

1 tbsp salt 

2 tbsp sugar 

3 onions 

1 tbsp caraway seeds 

140 ml sunflower oil 

150 ml white wine vinegar 

1 tbsp mustard (I used whole grain)

Clean the cabbage and remove the stem. Slice thinly and place in a large bowl. Add the salt and sugar and mix with hands for 5-10 min, until the cabbage goes a bit floppy. Cover with cling film and put in the fridge for approx. 24 hours.

The next day, peel and thinly slice the onions. Heat a medium saucepan over high heat and toast the caraway seeds briefly. Add oil, vinegar and onions to the pan and let cook gently until onions are soft. Add the mustard and mix to combine. Remove from the heat and let cool a bit.

Take the cabbage out of the fridge, add the onion mixture, and it is ready to eat. Keeps in the fridge well for a few days.

This is totally perfect, an excellent use of cabbage. It's quite quick and easy even though you have to remember to start it the day before you want to eat it. I did try making knoedel at some point, they were ok, need practice!

Cabbage and spelt soup

I have never before made anything that was so much more than the sum of its parts: this was delicious! And the recipe was posted just after I picked up a big white cabbage, a huge bunch of rosemary and some shallots from our vegetable club, and a little rooting around revealed we also had some spelt in the house... It took a while but it was amazing - I've never enjoyed anything with long-cooked cabbage this much! Strangely reminiscent of pasta+chickpeas, which we also love.

1 lb cabbage, white, savoy or green
olive oil
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
salt and pepper
3 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
1 sprig of rosemary or thyme (used rosemary)
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2/3 cup uncooked farro (not sure what farro is - used pearled spelt because that's what we had)
c 4 cups veg stock
parmesan rind (optional)
1 tbsp lemon juice
shaved parmesan, to finish (optional)

Cut out the cabbage core and finely chop it. Cut the leaves into fine shreds or about 1/8-inch ribbons. Heat c 3 tbsp olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion and cabbage core, some salt and pepper, and cook, stirring frequently, until the onion starts to soften but is not yet browned, about 5-7 min. Add the garlic and cook another 3-5 min, until the garlic softens too. Add the shredded cabbage leaves and herb sprig, if using. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cover the pot and let it steam a bit to soften the leaves, then toss the cabbage to combine with other ingredients. Cook, covered, until the cabbage is very sweet and tender, approx 30 min. Stir occasionally.

Meanwhile, in a small frying pan, heat a glug of olive oil over medium and add the uncooked farro. Toast it, stirring, for a few minutes, until half a shade darker.

When the cabbage is ready, stir in the vinegar. Taste and season with more salt and pepper. Add toasted farro, stock, and parmesan rind. Bring mixture to a lazy simmer and cook for 25-35 min, until farro is tender and all the flavors are married. The soup will be very thick, but if you’d prefer more liquid, add another 1/2 cup stock or water. Taste and adjust seasoning again. Stir in lemon juice. Ladle into bowls and finish each with a drizzle of olive oil and a shower of parmesan (if using), with more parmesan passed at the table.

Soup keeps well in the fridge for 3 days, and for weeks or longer in the freezer.


I ended up making this twice! The first time we wowed over it at home, the second time I made double, and it was 3 meals - one dinner at home, one work lunch for seb and me, and I took the final portion for lunch with C and new baby M.

Red cabbage, radish, sesame and wasabi

We had a red cabbage in the fridge, and three tubes of wasabi to use up before we leave (not going to happen)... I'd stumbled across these coleslaw recipes a couple of times, and this time thought I'd borrow the wasabi dressing idea for a red cabbage salad.

~1/2 a smallish red cabbage
2 medium-large purple radishes, peeled and grated
2 medium carrots, peeled and grated
~ 1 tbsp chopped chives

~1 tbsp peeled, finely chopped ginger
~1 tbsp wasabi paste
~ 2 tsp honey
juice of ~ 1/3 lime
~1 tsp umeboshi plum vinegar (optional)
~1 tbsp cider vinegar
~1 tsp sesame oil
~ 1 1/2 tbsp sunflower oil

1 tbsp white sesame seeds and 1 tbsp black sesame seeds, toasted

Finely shred the cabbage and put in a medium bowl with the grated radishes and carrots. Add the chives. In a small bowl, whisk together the ginger, wasabi, honey, lime juice, vinegars and oils. Pour the dressing over the vegetables, add the toasted seeds, toss and serve. Best eaten immediately but keeps OK for a couple of days in the fridge.


Another fresh+tasty Winter salad.

Cabbage, watermelon radish and bitter orange salad

I couldn't resist marmalade orange season. But since I still have several jars of last year's marmalade in my preserve stash, I am trying to resist actually making marmalade. Instead, I thought I'd see what else I could come up with using bitter / Seville / marmalade oranges. We are out of lemons, so the idea of using bitter orange in salad instead seemed an interesting one. I was just reading about some Japanese citrus the other day - there's so many other kinds of citrus out there beyond lemon, lime, orange and even grapefruit. I knew yuzu, but there are all these other ones I'd never even heard of too. Anyway, I'd never used marmalade oranges for anything other than marmalade, so here's a starter foray into the world of alternative citrus.

1/3 of a small white cabbage, shredded
2 small watermelon radishes, peeled and finely sliced (or cut into matchsticks)
1/4 cup golden raisins
1-2 tbsp sesame seeds
1-2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander
juice (and a little bit of zest) of half a bitter / Seville orange
1-2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp white miso
pepper and salt

Put the prepared cabbage, watermelon radish, raisins, sesame seeds and coriander in a bowl. Put the orange juice and zest in a separate, small bowl, add the olive oil, miso and seasoning and check it tastes good. Just before serving tip the dressing over the salad and toss.

Shredded cabbage salad

The last couple of cabbages we had ended up in curry or soup. We were chopping some for soup the other day, predictably snacking on it as we chopped, and found ourselves talking about how delicious and sweet and crispy-crunchy and fresh it is just raw. And how I actually like it most like that. We've had warmer weather recently, and with two cabbages in the fridge a salad seemed like a great idea - a change from soup and dal. I pulled out all these other things to add in - celeriac, apple, parsley, seeds, spices... But then realised simple made more sense: just shredded cabbage, golden raisins, walnuts and lemony dressing.

1/2 a good-sized white cabbage
handful of golden raisins
handful of walnut pieces
juice of 1/2 a small lemon
1 tsp honey
2 tsp white miso
1 tbsp wholegrain mustard
~2 tbsp olive oil
salt (just a little, the miso is salty) and pepper

Shred the cabbage and put in a serving bowl. Add the raisins and walnuts. Whisk the remaining ingredients together in a small bowl, then pour over the cabbage just before serving and toss.

Ginger-sesame-miso soup

We ate at Life Alive after sauna and it hit the spot - I had something ('The Fool') rich with mushrooms, kale, sesame, ginger and sprouted legumes (and udon); S had a similar beast but with miso broth. Yesterday we had planned a big dinner (East by Northeast), so I wanted something light but filling for lunch. As I biked back from aerials it was chilly but brightening, and miso soup shaped into my answer as I rode. I've made miso soup before and it's so simple it hardly warrants a recipe. But anyway, for this one I merged S's miso with my sesame-ginger and it was really fresh and delicious while still warm enough for a chilly Autumn day.

(makes enough for one person, for lunch)

3 small carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
3 inch piece of daikon radish, peeled and thinly sliced
2 cups boiling water
1 inch piece of ginger, peeled and finely chopped
2-3 savoy cabbage (or other cabbage, or kale) leaves, shredded
2 inch cube of firm tofu, chopped into ~1 cm dice
1/2 tsp sesame oil
2-3 tbsp good-quality white miso
~1 tbsp shredded fresh mint (or coriander)

Put the carrots and daikon in a small pan with the water and the ginger. Bring to the boil. Boil for a few minutes, until the carrots are just starting to get tender. Add the cabbage and tofu and bring back to the boil. Turn off the heat and mix in the sesame oil and miso. Pour or dollop into a bowl, top with the mint, and eat (add more water, more miso or more sesame oil to taste).


This is amazing - a week later it's still all I want to eat. I've got S into it too, and we have made various versions, all successful - one with shredded kale, sliced turnip, sweetcorn, peas and edamame; another with noodles as well to make it even more beefy. Yum. Only thing that didn't really work was eating some cold without broth - thought it'd just be like steamed veg with some miso flavour; it turned out to be a bit peely-wally.

Miso soup as a meal

This is very simple. But good. Use whatever vegetables you like, and just make sure to add them in an order that ensures they are all cooked at the same time. The tofu and udon make it bigger, heartier and into a full meal, but they are optional too. Use whatever kind of miso takes your fancy / fits with the vegetables you chose.

1 small onion, peeled and finely sliced
1 large carrot, peeled and cut into thin half moons
1/2 a watermelon radish, peeled and cut into thin slices similar sized to the carrot
1 serving sized packet udon noodles
2 in block of tofu (any kind), diced
2 in piece of cabbage, thinly sliced
3 spring onions, trimmed and sliced
5 mushrooms, sliced
light miso, 4 tbsp or more
water

Put the onion, carrot and radish in a large saucepan with about a litre of water. Bring to the boil and simmer for ~10 min, until the veg are nearly cooked but still a little crunchy. Add the noodles and tofu, bring back to the boil and cook for a few more minutes. Add the cabbage, spring onions and mushrooms, bring to the boil and simmer until all the ingredients are just cooked (a minute or so). Finally, take a ladleful of the liquid from the pan and mix it in a small bowl with the miso, then transfer this mixture back to the pan and stir until combined. Alternatively, you can mix the miso and liquid in your own bowl and then add a serving of soup and mix it up before eating.

Curried cabbage and coconut

Got a big white cabbage that needed eating fast from last week's Alvin farmshare. Turned over a few ideas in my head: perhaps Polish style stuffed leaves (had been talking about these with my labmate who made them with his Polish-descended mother recently)? Or pickled? But then the idea of a dry, yellow curry with coconut came into my head and seemed so delicious I couldn't drop it.

I more-or-less followed this recipe, because it seemed to be quite straightforward and almost exactly what I had in mind - even including curry leaves, which I bought a bag of a month or so ago and had been storing in the freezer until an opportunity to cook them arose.

3 tbsp safflower oil (or other non-flavoured, high temp cooking oil)
1/4 tsp brown mustard seeds
1/4 tsp cumin seeds
1 heaping tsp mung dal, urad dal or small yellow lentils
1-2 small green chillies, seeds removed, finely chopped
10-20 fresh curry leaves (used 11)
1 small onion, finely sliced
1 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 a medium white cabbage (approx 1 lb), cored and shredded
1 piece fresh ginger, 1-inch long, peeled and chopped or cut into matchsticks
1/2 tsp salt
4 tbsp finely grated fresh coconut or grated dried coconut

Heat the oil in a large, tall saucepan over med-high heat. When it’s hot and shimmery add the mustard seeds. When they have almost all popped (30 sec or so), remove the pan from the heat, then turn down to medium, put pan back on, add cumin, dal, chilli, curry leaves, and saute until everything looks lightly golden (~ 45 sec). Add the onion and cook, stirring, until it’s soft and limp but does not change colour: two to four minutes. Add the turmeric and stir well to mix. Add the cabbage, ginger and salt, and mix thoroughly. Reduce the heat to low and cover the pan. Cook gently, stirring occasionally, until cooked through, slightly translucent, tender, still crunchy but not mushy: about seven minutes. Add the coconut, and mix well. Taste for salt. Let sit for at least 5 min before eating.


This is really delicious, and makes a beautiful pan of yellow shreds studded with brown seeds and dal. The curry leaves lend a very particular aroma and flavour which I like, and the combined dal, cooked cabbage and coconut make a wonderful set of contrasting textures. Yum.

Red cabbage salad

Previous red cabbage experiments having led me to believe that raw in salad is by far the best way to eat red cabbage, more salad was definitely in order for this one.  Dried fruit, nuts, honey and mustard were calling out to be added, so I obliged.

1/2 a red cabbage, outer leaves and thick stem in the middle removed and the rest finely shredded
1 tbsp chives, chopped
1 tbsp coriander leaves, chopped
1 tsp nigella seeds
1/2 tsp caraway seeds
1 tbsp golden raisins
1 tbsp flaked toasted almonds
2 tsp wholegrain mustard
1 tsp honey
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp cider vinegar
2 tbsp olive oil
salt+pepper

Put the shredded cabbage, herbs and seeds in a serving bowl.  In a small bowl, mix the remaining (dressing) ingredients and check for tastiness.  Pour the dressing over the cabbage, toss and eat.


S said he didn't think he liked red cabbage but then he really liked this, so that seems like a recommendation.  Lots of space for adaptation, as ever with this kind of recipe. 

Red Cabbage

We got back from Belize / Guatemala and I was expecting a completely empty fridge.  I was pleasantly surprised when I opened it to find forgotten whole red cabbage, huge butternut squash and a few baby potatoes.  This should keep us going til the weekend!  Seb made a run to TJs and so apples and onions were added to the range of possibility, along with the garlic, citrus and storecupboard already present.

I decided to tackle the red cabbage last night.  I like red cabbage a lot - the sweet/peppery, crunchy, colourful juiciness really does it for me. But I hardly ever buy it as a whole cabbage always seems like a lot to deal with.  But it had survived a few weeks in the fridge quite happily - I should really do it more...  In all it was about 3lb of cabbage so I made a couple of things with it (not least because the whole lot would have overflowed my only lidded baking dish...).


Braised red cabbage

This felt like the right thing to do - nice and wintry (almost christmassy) flavours, I'd never done it before but found the recipe in Delia's veggie collection - there is no one I'd trust more with a holiday classic when feeling a bit rusty in the kitchen than her.


2/3 a 3lb cabbage
1/2 a huge onion, chopped into small pieces
1 large apple, cored and chopped into small pieces
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
3 tbsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 a nutmeg, freshly grated
salt and pepper
3 tbsp red wine vinegar
~10g butter

Heat oven to 300F.

Remove and discard the outer leaves from the cabbage.  Cut the remainder into quarters and remove the hard stem.  Shred as finely as you can.  Prepare the apple and alliums.

Put a layer of cabbage into a lidded baking dish.  Add a layer of apple and onion.  Mix the garlic, sugar, spices and seasoning and then add a layer of the spice mix.  Repeat until all in.  Add the vinegar and butter, put on the lid and put in the oven.

Cook for ~ 2 1/2 hours, checking and stirring a couple of times during that time.

Red cabbage salad

1/3 a 3lb cabbage, prepared as above
1 tbsp onion, very finely chopped
1/3 cup dried cranberries
2 tbsp peanut butter
juice of 1 lime
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp red wine vinegar
2 tsp maple syrup
pinch cayenne pepper
1 tsp ground cinnamon

Put the shredded cabbage, onion and cranberries into a bowl and mix.  Put the remaining ingredients into a small bowl and mix with a fork until well combined, to make the dressing.  Add the dressing to the cabbage and mix well.  Put in the fridge for a few hours or overnight so that the flavours and juices can meld.


Both are good.  For some reason I thought peanut butter, cabbage, cranberry and acid would be a good combination and they are - very more-ish.  The braised cabbage is nice and comforting and seasonal, although I love the raw texture of cabbage so much it does seem a bit of a shame to cook it.