Braised Slow With Passion Fruit for the Christmas Table

I will tell you a secret about red cabbage. For years, I did not trust it. Back home in Guadeloupe, cabbage was green, it was crunchy, and it went raw into a salad with lime and a little oil. My mother always kept a head of it in the kitchen. But a cabbage the colour of a bruise, cooked for an hour until it is soft? No. Not in my mother’s house.

Then I came to England, and every December I saw it. In the shops, in the pubs, on every Christmas table I was invited to. A dark purple spoonful next to the turkey, sweet and sharp at the same time. People told me it was not Christmas without it. So I tasted it properly, with an open mind, and I understood. It is the dish that cuts through everything rich on the plate. The gravy, the roast potatoes, the pork. It is the side that keeps you eating.

Of course, I could not leave it alone. I am a cook from the islands. When I see a dish that wants sweetness and sourness, I reach for passion fruit, what we call maracudja at home. So my red cabbage braises slowly with red onion, apple, orange, a little allspice and cinnamon, and a few good spoons of my Exotic Caribbean Sauce. The colour stays deep and shining. The flavour is warm, bright and a little tropical.

And here is the best part for a busy cook: it is better made the day before. On Christmas Day, it just needs a pan and five minutes.

Recipe at a glance

• Cuisine: Caribbean fusion
• Prep: 15 minutes • Cook: 1 hour 20 minutes • Total: 1 hour 35 minutes
• Serves: 8 as a side
• Featured sauce: Exotic Caribbean Sauce
• Heat level: 3/10, a soft warmth under the fruit, nothing more
• Diet: Vegan, gluten free, dairy free

What you’ll need

This is a big pot, because red cabbage is a dish you want leftovers of. One medium cabbage feeds eight people at Christmas, with some for Boxing Day. Use a heavy pan with a lid, the heavier the better, so nothing catches on the bottom during the long, slow cook.

• 1 red cabbage, about 1kg
• 2 tbsp olive oil or vegetable oil
• 1 large red onion, thinly sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, finely sliced
• 2 eating apples (Braeburn or Cox), peeled, cored and cut into small chunks
• 5 tbsp Exotic Caribbean Sauce, plus 1 tbsp to finish
• 3 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 2 tbsp soft light brown sugar
• Zest and juice of 1 orange
• ½ tsp ground allspice
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 3 whole cloves
• A few gratings of nutmeg
• 2 sprigs of fresh thyme
• 100ml water
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Pulp of 1 fresh passion fruit, to finish (optional)

How I make it

1. Prepare the cabbage. Pull off any tired outer leaves. Cut the cabbage into quarters, cut out the hard white core from each one, then slice it as thinly as you can. Thin ribbons cook evenly and turn silky. Thick chunks stay chewy, and nobody wants to chew their way through Christmas.

2. Soften the onion. Heat the oil in your heavy pan over a medium heat. Add the red onion with a pinch of salt and let it cook gently for 6 to 8 minutes, stirring now and then, until it is soft and sweet. Add the garlic for the last minute. Listen to it. A soft sizzle, never a crackle. If it browns, turn the heat down.

3. Wake up the spices. Add the allspice, the cinnamon stick, the cloves and the nutmeg. Stir for 30 seconds, until the kitchen starts to smell like Christmas. That is how you know.

4. Add the cabbage. Pile all the cabbage into the pan. It will look like far too much. Don’t worry. Turn it with two spoons so the onion and the spices are mixed through, and in a few minutes it will start to relax and fall.

5. Add everything else. Now the apple, the 5 tbsp of Exotic Caribbean Sauce, the vinegar, the sugar, the orange zest and juice, the thyme and the 100ml water. Season with a good pinch of salt and some black pepper. Stir it well. Look at the colour now: the vinegar and the orange turn the cabbage from dull purple to a deep, bright magenta.

6. Braise it low and slow. Bring it to a gentle simmer, put the lid on, and turn the heat right down. Let it cook for 1 hour 10 minutes, and stir it every 15 minutes or so. Each time, check the bottom of the pan. If it looks dry, add a splash of water. You want it moist, not swimming.

7. Reduce the juices. Take the lid off for the last 10 minutes and turn the heat up a little. Stir more often now. The liquid cooks down into a glossy, sticky coating on the cabbage. This is the moment it goes from “cooked cabbage” to something people ask about.

8. Taste and finish. Fish out the cinnamon stick, the cloves and the thyme stalks. Stir in the last tablespoon of Exotic Caribbean Sauce. Now taste. More salt? A little more sugar if it is too sharp, a splash more vinegar if it is too sweet. You are looking for a balance, sweet and sour holding hands.

9. Serve. Pile it into a warm dish. If you have a fresh passion fruit, spoon the pulp over the top just before it goes to the table. The little black seeds and the bright yellow juice on the dark purple, it looks like a celebration.

The role of Exotic Caribbean Sauce in this dish

Most red cabbage recipes build their flavour from three things: onion for sweetness, vinegar for sharpness, sugar to balance. My Exotic Caribbean Sauce already carries two of them. It is made mostly of onion, with real passion fruit juice and a gentle chilli. So when it goes into the pot, it deepens the onion, and it brings a fruity sharpness that plain vinegar cannot give you.

That is why the apple and the passion fruit work so well together here. The apple is soft and familiar, the taste of an English Christmas. The passion fruit is perfumed and bright, the taste of my island. And the chilli is only a whisper, a little warmth at the back that keeps the dish from being too sweet. The last spoonful, stirred in at the end and not cooked, keeps that passion fruit fresh on top.

How to cook red cabbage for a roast dinner

Red cabbage is the easiest side on a roast dinner plate, because it does not need the oven and it does not need you at the last minute. If your oven is full of turkey and potatoes, cook it on the hob the day before, as above, and keep it in the fridge.

If you prefer the oven, that works too. Do steps 1 to 5 in a casserole dish that can go in the oven, bring it to a simmer, put the lid on and cook it at 150°C (130°C fan) for about 2 hours, stirring once or twice. Then reduce the juices on the hob for a few minutes at the end.

Tips from my kitchen

• Slice it thin. I said it already, and I will say it again. Thin ribbons. A food processor with a slicing blade does it in one minute if your knife arm is tired.
• Don’t skip the acid. The vinegar, the orange and the passion fruit are not only for flavour. They keep the colour red. Without them, red cabbage turns a sad blue-grey in the pot.
• Make it the day before. The flavours settle and get deeper overnight. Cool it, cover it, put it in the fridge, and on the day reheat it gently in a pan with a splash of water.
• Taste at the end, not the start. The sauce and the long cook change the balance. Season properly only when it is done.
• Use your leftovers. On Boxing Day, it is wonderful cold in a sandwich with leftover ham. If you made my Caribbean glazed ham, the passion fruit in both is a very happy marriage.

What to serve it with

On Christmas Day, it goes next to everything. With my jerk turkey, the sweet and sour cabbage cools the heat of the bird. With my Caribbean roast duck, it is a classic for good reason: red cabbage was made to cut through rich, fatty meat.

Put a tray of my honey roast parsnips beside it, and you have the sticky, the sharp and the sweet all on one plate. Roast potatoes, gravy, a few sprouts, and that is a table I would sit down at happily.

It is not only for Christmas, either. Red cabbage is wonderful with pork chops, sausages and mash on a cold November night, or with a nut roast for a vegan Sunday lunch.

If you want to know what Christmas tastes like back home in Guadeloupe, the ham, the pois d’Angole, the music in the street, read my piece on Christmas in the Caribbean.

FAQ

Can you freeze red cabbage?

Yes, cooked red cabbage freezes very well, and this is one of my favourite tricks for Christmas. Let it cool completely, pack it into freezer bags or tubs, and freeze it for up to a month. Defrost it in the fridge overnight, then warm it through in a pan with a splash of water until it is piping hot. I don’t freeze it raw, because the texture goes soft and watery.

How do you cook red cabbage on the stove?

Low and slow, with a lid. Soften onion in a heavy pan, add the shredded cabbage with something sweet, something sour and a little liquid, then let it braise gently for about an hour and ten minutes, stirring every 15 minutes. Take the lid off at the end to cook the juices down until glossy.

Why is my red cabbage blue?

Red cabbage changes colour depending on how acidic the pot is. With acid (vinegar, citrus, apple, passion fruit) it stays a bright red-purple. Without enough acid, or with hard tap water, it can turn blue or even grey-green. The good news: add a splash of vinegar or a squeeze of orange, stir, and the colour comes back.

Can you make red cabbage ahead for Christmas?

Please do. It keeps in the fridge, covered, for up to three days, and it tastes better on the second day. Reheat it gently in a pan until it is piping hot all the way through, and add the fresh passion fruit only when you serve.

Is this red cabbage recipe vegan and gluten free?

Yes. As written it is vegan, dairy free and gluten free. Exotic Caribbean Sauce is vegan and gluten free, and so are the other ingredients here. Many people cook red cabbage with butter or bacon fat; I use oil so everybody at the table can eat it. One allergen note: wine vinegar contains sulphites, so check the label if anyone at your table is sensitive to them.

If there is a vegetarian at your table this year, this cabbage was made to sit next to my Caribbean nut roast, the moist one that slices cleanly.

Final word from me

I came to red cabbage late, and I came to it with suspicion. Now it is one of the dishes I look forward to most in December. Make a big pot, make it the day before, and let your kitchen smell of allspice and orange while you get on with everything else. Then on Christmas Day, spoon it next to your roast and watch how fast the dish empties.

JP