A German staple, Slow Cooker Red Cabbage is a bit sweet, sour, and subtly spiced resulting in a side dish that’s vibrant in both color and taste. Using common, on-hand pantry staples, this braised red cabbage recipe is easy to make and absolutely delicious.

If you love braised cabbage, then you’ll enjoy our chicken and cabbage, slow cooker cabbage rolls, and slow cooker potatoes, cabbage, and kielbasa recipes.

What is slow-cooked red cabbage?

Braised German red cabbage is a common, yet traditional German side dish. Depending on what part of the country you’re in will determine the name. German red cabbage, rotkohl, rotkraut, blaukohl, or blaudraut are the 4 most common names. Rot means red, blau means blue, and both kraut and kohl roughly mean cabbage.

Those with German ancestry often serve this sweet and sour red cabbage at special occasion meals like Christmas dinner. However, this dish is both healthy and budget friendly and really should be served more often.

Braised cabbage is often made in a Dutch oven or large pot simmering on the stove for a few hours that you stir occasionally making it a perfect recipe to make in the slow cooker.

Recipe Ingredients

• Cabbage — you’ll need one head of red cabbage. We don’t recommend using bagged or pre-shredded cabbage for this recipe.
• Apple — The apple lends a bit of sweetness to the overall dish. It completely breaks down and you won’t see or taste the apple on its own. We used Granny Smith.
• Onion — one small yellow onion will perfect. You can use a white onion too.
• Pantry staples — granulated white sugar, apple cider vinegar, butter, and water.
• Seasonings — ground clove, cinnamon, salt, and pepper.

Step-by-Step Directions

Step 1 — Pull off any bad outer layers of the cabbage, wash it. Using a sharp knife, cut the cabbage in half (or quarters) and remove the core. Then cut the raw cabbage into shreds. You can also use a food processor. Add it all to the slow cooker

Step 2 — Cut and core the apple and slice the onion. These both should be thinly sliced. Toss them both in the slow cooker. Mix the cabbage, apples, and onions together.

Step 3 — Add the ground cloves, cinnamon, salt, pepper, and butter. Pour in the apple cider vinegar and water, stir well. Cook on high for 3 hours or low for 5 hours.

Step 4 — When the time is up, open the lid and stir everything. As you stir the dish, the apples will disintegrate into the dish. Give it a quick taste to see if you need to add more salt. Replace the lid and cook on low for an additional hour or high for about 20 minutes.

How to serve

This dish is great with so many things.

Of course braised red cabbage goes perfectly with all your favorite German recipes:

• Bratwursts
• beef rouladen
• Schnitzel and potato dumplings

However, it’s wonderful with regular hot dogs, beef or pork roast, steak, chicken and so much more.

Adaptations and Variations

• Vinegar — You can substitute the apple cider vinegar for red wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar, or even white vinegar.
• Apple — Braeburn, Fuji, golden delicious, or your favorite variety will work well. In a pinch you can even use apple sauce.
• Sugar — Brown sugar can be swapped out for white sugar.
• Onions — Use slow cooker caramelized onions instead of raw onions. This will create a deeper flavor.
• Water — Use chicken broth for added flavor as well instead of water. For even sweeter red cabbage, use apple juice.
• Spices — Juniper berries are an ingredient used in the traditional recipes but can be hard to find. If you do find them, use 3-4. You can also swap the ground cloves for 3-4 whole cloves. I’d recommend adding them to a cheese cloth pouch or a empty tea bag. You do not want to bite into either of these and they could be hard to fish out after the dish is cooked.

Recipe FAQs

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