Red Cabbage Salad with Apple
My Sister Alla’s Red Cabbage Salad with Apple is loaded with the best Autumn Ingredients. She sneaks sauerkraut into her salad, making it like a red cabbage slaw; it’s almost undetectable but makes every bite perfectly tangy.
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I don’t know if it’s the wonderful flavor or pretty color (or both!) that has this red cabbage salad on the top of my children’s list for salads. My little one calls this her purple salad :).
Red Cabbage Salad Recipe
After sharing this purple cabbage salad in our camping post, there was a flood of requests for the recipe, so here it is! Thank you to my sister Alla for sharing your salad (and love of Sauerkraut) with us. Read more below on why red cabbage is so good for you (it will surprise you!).
Ingredients for Red Cabbage Salad:
The ingredients make a generous-sized side salad for a family of 6, but you can easily double everything for a crowd. Think: Thanksgiving side dish!
The red cabbage makes the whole salad so vibrant and everything else takes on a pretty purple hue once it’s all stirred together. We love the sweet tart granny smith apples for salads, but you can use any apple variety you have on hand.
Red Cabbage Nutrition:
Red Cabbage has 8 TIMES more Vitamin C than regular white cabbage which makes it one of the top Vitamin C foods in the world. Vitamin C is a wonderful thing to have on-board to stay healthy in the winter months.
Did you know you could make Red Cabbage Sauerkraut? My sister Alla does it all the time! Fermenting red cabbage is wonderful for gut health (with the probiotic properties) in addition to enjoying all of the health benefits of red cabbage.
Cabbage can also help reduce chronic inflammation (helps with arthritis), and is rich in Vitamin K (improves bone density).
How to Select and Trim a Red Cabbage:
Select a red cabbage the same way you would select a green one – with tight and crisp, un-damaged leaves. Limp leaves or damage that extends past the first leaf can indicate a bad cabbage.
To Trim a Cabbage, peel back and discard the outer leaves even if they look good (because they’ve been on the grocery shelf). Rinse and pat dry the cabbage and cut it in half. Place the cabbage cut-side-down (on a dark cutting board as the color can stain). Thinly slice the cabbage working around the edges. Slice nearly to the center core then discard the core.
More Red Cabbage Recipes:
- Russian Beet Salad – a favorite for the holidays
- Creamy Coleslaw with Red Cabbage (famous copycat recipe)
- Korean Beef Tacos – with sweet beef bulgogi beef (MMM!)
- Fish Tacos – LISTEN UP: These are completely amazing.
Red Cabbage Salad with Apple
Ingredients
- 1/2 medium red cabbage, (6 cups finely chopped)
- 1/2 cup sauerkraut, well drained
- 1/2 English cucumber, sliced
- 1 granny smith apple, sliced into thin bite-sized pieces
- 1/2 cup green onion, chopped
- 1 Tbsp dill, finely chopped
- 4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 Tbsp white vinegar, or to taste
- 1/2 tsp sea salt, or to taste
Instructions
- Finely chop cabbage and transfer it to a large mixing bowl.
- Thoroughly squeeze sauerkraut by the fist-fulls to remove excess moisture until you have 1/2 cup of squeezed sauerkraut then add it to the salad bowl.
- Add sliced cucumber and granny smith apple, chopped dill and green onion.
- Drizzle the salad with 4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil and 1 Tbsp white vinegar and 1/2 tsp sea salt*. Toss the salad well to combine and add more salt and/or vinegar to taste.
Notes
Nutrition Per Serving
If you make this recipe, I’d love to see pics of your creations on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter! Hashtag them #natashaskitchen
Q: Do you call this red cabbage or purple cabbage and what is your all-time favorite red cabbage recipe?
Just made this and it is really delicious, the flavours work well together. I admit, the combination of ingredients did not really appeal to me at first when I read the recipe, however as I had all the items at hand which needed to be used up I was pleasantly surprised.
Thank you for the good feedback, Mrs. M! Happy to hear that you enjoyed this recipe!
Tried this but didn’t have dill. Used some red cabbage sauerkraut that is made. Delish!!
Red cabbage sauerkraut sounds so yummy on this!
Great recipe, tasty and nutritional at the same time. The only thing I would do differently is to use Balsamic vinegar instead of plain white. It has a bit more character in it
Thanks for your suggestion and good comments, we appreciate it!
I’m so glad you enjoyed that!
Hello! Thanks for sharing such an amazing recipe! Please could you recommend a substitute to the Sauerkraut – it’s not easy to come by here in India!
Hi Jim, I haven’t tested anything else in this salad. You might try one of our other cabbage salads. You can find them by typing “cabbage salad” into the search bar on our blog.
I love this salad but because I don’t like cucumbers I added dry cranberries and replace vinegar with balsamic vinegar.
Thank you for sharing your substitutions with that. Our readers will find that helpful!
I made this for a church picnic recently, and it was a hit. I tripling the recipe, omitting the onions and used sweet apples instead of Granny Smiths (sweet to compliment the tanginess of the sauerkraut and vinegar). Also, after looking at that photo, I decided to slice the cabbage into strips instead of chopping it up, so the cabbage would be a similar size as the apples and cucumbers.
That’s so great! Thank you for sharing that with us!
I made this last night. It is so good! I love the crunch from the cabbage and the sweetness from the apple. The sauce/dressing isn’t overbearing and you still can taste and enjoy the individual ingredients. Adding this one to the book!
I’m so happy to hear that! Thank you for sharing your great review, Cassandra!
That looks delicious I love anything made with red cabbage.
I hope you love this recipe, Bee!
Just made this, and it is absolutely delicious. What a great combination of flavors!
That’s so great! Thank you for the wonderful review!! I’m so happy you enjoyed that!
Hi Natasha! This recipe looks SO amazing! I really love your recipes, partly because they are really really great and partly because they remind me of traditional Polish cuisine, which is where I come from 🙂 Keep up the great job! 🙂
Thank you Katya! I’m so happy you are enjoying our blog!
Hi Natasha,
Oh my, so many amazing salads here. I really wish I wasn’t stuck in freezing winter temperatures right now because I want to eat them all.
Aren’t they the best! Thank you for the wonderful review, Jolia!
My aunt once made this salad but with a creamy coleslaw type of dressing. It was Phenomenal and I’ve always thought the combo of purple cabbage and green apple was brilliant:) I’d like to try this one!
Oooh yum I love the idea of using a creamy dressing on this. You know I’m going to try that next with this red cabbage salad!! Thanks for sharing!!
Hello, what is the serving size for this salad? Is it about a cup or half a cup? Thank you.
Hi Anna, I didn’t measure this cabbage salad that way precisely but I would say it is about 1 cup when serving 6.
Your cooking (and family’s) uses a lot of fresh dill..is that herb grown fresh year round where your family is from?
Hi Chris! Yes, we sure do us quite a bit of it! My parents grow a lot of it and we freeze a good chunk of it for the winter months. It does not grow year round here.
But frozen dill cant be used in a fresh dish like this one I assume? Only in a cooked dish?
Fresh is always best! In the winter months, we just use what we have on hand and frozen should work just as fine.
Can this be made with green cabbage if that’s what you have on hand?
Hi Inna, yes! This will absolutely work with green cabbage. My sister has done it that way before and she has also done green cabbage with red cabbage sauerkraut. You can change up the cabbage.
This salad sounds SO good! Does it stay good the next day or is it only good fresh?
Hi Inna, because of the salt and cucumbers, it is best eaten fresh.