Konky's Creative Kitchen
- Mar 2
- 3 min read

Sautéed Cabbage, Carrots, and Apples

Are you looking for a delicious and easy side dish to go with your next meal? If you are into sweet, savory, tart, and a massive punch of flavor, you definitely need to give this dish a try! Winter time for us involves getting inside after a long day of shoveling and plowing snow. You work hard outdoors, freezing your ass off, and work up one hell of an appetite. This vegetable and fruit sauté is the most easiest and incredible side dish to make. If you are planning on a rather fatty protein, something smoked, or barbequed, this dish is the perfect match!

This is the epitome of working with what is seasonally available and it can easily be made year round once the farmstands are in full swing. Where budgets can get pretty tight, this becomes a great budget-friendly way to put some beautiful produce on the plate. Folks, it is easy to make something delicious as this! Everything can be found at your favorite grocery store, so let's get this going!

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PLEASE NOTE: I am leaving you in charge of spice-control and the dried cranberries. The dish itself uses some dried cranberries, dried thyme, dill, and black pepper. This is a great way for you to learn how to train your palate, train your eyes on amounts, and will help you acquire the knowledge of what flavor combinations can do.

A purple head of cabbage — Beautiful Cabbage

BASE INGREDIENTS:

8oz Red Cabbage, sliced into wedges

6oz Carrots, halved, sliced

1-2 Gala apples, diced

1oz Garlic, finely minced

Dried Cranberries, optional

1oz Butter

WET INGREDIENTS:

8oz Olive oil (2oz reserved)

4oz ACV

4oz Water

3oz Maple syrup

3TB Pickling Spices

Lemon, juiced

Dried Dill, to taste

Dried Thyme, to taste

After rinsing and drying your produce, prepare all of your ingredients

1.) Cabbage: Remove the wilted outer leaves that are less-desirable. Cut the cabbage into wedges. Then, remove the core at an angle. This is the best way to remove the core. Continue to cut into either large diced or into reasonably sized wedges.

2.) Carrots: Peeling is optional. Slice evenly in to small cuts.

3.) Apples: Peeling is optional. Dice into small chunks.

4.) Garlic: With a garlic press or your knife, mince this down as much as possible.

5.) Into a decent-sized mixing bowl, add your wet ingredients and mix well. Set this bowl aside to allow your pickling spices to marry into the solution for about 10 minutes.

6.) Add your carrots, apples, garlic, and dried cranberries to the wet mixture. Toss to coat and let this sit for about 30 minutes

7.) With your reserved olive oil, add this to a sauté pan on medium heat. Add your cabbage to the pan.

8.) Let the cabbage sit in the pan to allow some gentle browning (Maillard). Toss periodically to avoid burning in the pan for the next five minutes or so.

9.) Remove cabbage from the pan and into a bowl. Add your marinated carrots and apples to the pan. Increase the heat to a medium-high heat.

10.) Add your butter to the pan to melt. Let the carrot-apple mixture stew in the marinade, which will rehydrate the dried cranberries. Mix periodically. This will take a good five to seven minutes before the carrots start to become tender. Cook longer if you want soft carrots. Add your dried dill and dried thyme here.

11.) Add the end of your cooking time, reintroduce the cooked cabbage to your pan and toss well.

12.) At this point, the marinade will start to thicken and reduce. Bring your heat to simmer and toss evenly for about five more minutes. Remove from heat and shut off.

Serve as a side dish for your next smoked, BBQ, or roasted meats. This pairs well with fatty meats as it will cleanse the palate and offer a nice punch of flavor. Some beautiful rice will absorb the flavors of both your cabbage dish as well as the meats, and bring this all together.