Sweet/sour marinated white cabbage

This is NOT sauerkraut, nothing like it. This is a lovely sweet spicy salad for anyone who loves coleslaw but has got a bit fed up with eating it through these winter months. That's to say probably everyone in the northern hemisphere who is eating seasonally and beginning to feel the annual yearning for some soft green salad leaves.

It's got other virtues, too: you can make it ahead, in fact it's better if you do. Better to wait 24 hours before eating, so that the flavours can intensify (although this is hard, once you start nibbling at it). Which makes it a good thing to use up the cabbage left over at the end of the week (there's always a little something left when the next veg box comes, the trick is to make sure it's stuff that will keep well in a cool place). So at least one vegetable dish for supper is made before you even start to think about what to eat.


















Sweet/sour marinated white cabbage
to fill one .75l jar

half a white cabbage
200ml cider vinegar
200ml caster sugar
6 tbsp oil
4 tsp fennel seeds
2 tsp yellow mustard seeds
2 tsp black mustard seeds
salt and pepper

Dissolve the sugar in the cider vinegar over a gentle heat. Leave to cool. Finely shred the cabbage and put into a large bowl. Add oil (sunflower is fine, no need to use olive oil), seeds and seasoning to the vinegar. (I gave the seeds a bit of a bashing in a mortar, but it's not strictly necessary.) Mix well and throw over the cabbage, making sure everything is well coated. Press the mixture into a .75l jar, cover and refrigerate for at least several hours.

This should keep for a couple of weeks, but there's not much chance of that in this house.

I should think it would be just as good with Savoy or red cabbage - but, then, I make coleslaw from them, too, which may not be to everyone's taste.


















Related posts

Lady Diana Cooper's spiced cabbage
Kohl slaw