Red Cabbage Salad: Quick 15-Minute Recipe with Red Onion
They say cabbage keeps its vitamins all year round. At home, especially in winter, we make red cabbage salad often, and there's always some in the fridge. It's quick and easy to make, and the dressing is entirely up to you. Mayonnaise or olive oil, whichever you like. Or you can stick with just lemon juice, which is also very tasty.
I remember that when I was little, cabbage was our most important vegetable, along with potatoes. In the village, as soon as autumn came, my grandparents would wrestle a huge oak barrel into the cellar to ferment cabbage in. And they fermented it shredded, cut into chunks, and even as whole heads. Fresh cabbage kept in the cellar right through to spring.
For some reason, red cabbage was only planted in small amounts. Unlike white cabbage, it wasn't fermented. It was only eaten raw, in salads. Strictly speaking, red cabbage is tougher, and it takes a little effort to make a salad out of it. I always buy quite small heads: red cabbage is a bit more fragrant and tasty that way.
Since this cabbage has just over 20 kcal per 100 g, it's the perfect food for endless grueling diets and the eternal struggle with oneself. And Napa cabbage salad isn't the only thing that can save your figure.
Red cabbage helps prevent many diseases, since it contains pigments that are very useful in minimizing the effects of radiation and in treating tuberculosis. Although, to be honest, I don't quite get why it's called red. It's purple, lilac in color, and red cabbage salad is purple too.
Cabbage with mayonnaise or oil is a great addition to a good lunch, especially if you can make homemade mayonnaise. Red cabbage salad is well worth making: it's good for you and works not only as a starter, but also as a side for meat.
Ingredients
4-6 servings
- Red cabbage 1 head
- Sweet red onion 1
- Parsley 2-3 sprigs
- Mayonnaise or vegetable oil to taste
- Salt, sugar, ground black pepper, wine vinegar to taste
Step-by-step recipe
- Cabbage is usually very dense and hard. One small head (up to 1 kg) is enough to make red cabbage salad for the whole family. If the heads are big, don't worry: cabbage keeps perfectly in the fridge even cut in half.
- It's best to marinate the sweet red onion a little. Just a little, so the salad doesn't smell too strongly of onion. Peel the onion and slice it into very thin strips or half-rings. Sprinkle with ½ tsp sugar and add 1 tbsp natural wine vinegar. Let the onion sit for 10-15 minutes. Then drain off all the liquid and squeeze the onion very gently.
- Pull the outer leaves off the red cabbage. They're usually damaged, much tougher and have a bluish bloom. Shred the cabbage with a sharp knife or any gadget you like. The thinner the cabbage is shredded, the tastier the salad.
- Salt the cabbage lightly and add 1 tsp sugar. Squeeze and knead the shredded cabbage with your hands until it releases its juice. That makes the cabbage softer.
- Add the sweet red onion and finely chopped parsley to the shredded cabbage.
- Combine the red cabbage, marinated onion and parsley in a salad bowl. Season the red cabbage salad with more salt and pepper to taste.
- Dress it with homemade mayonnaise, which is easy to make.
- If mayonnaise goes against your principles or your diet, dress the salad with plain vegetable oil to taste. But it's worth saying that cabbage salad dressed with just a little good-quality mayonnaise tastes much better.
| Serves: | 4-6 servings |
| Calories: | 38 |
| Prep: | 5 mins |
| Cook: | 10 mins |
| Total: | 15 mins |
| Category: | Salads |
| Cuisine: | European |
| Rating: |
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4.7
(5)
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