Red Cabbage with Apples

Use just two ingredients and ten minutes to make this colorful, healthy vegetable side dish. It's pretty enough for your holiday table and a light balance to heavy fare.

Active time: 10 minutes. Total time: 15 minutes. Serves 4.

Recipe ingredients

4 cups red cabbage, sliced very thin (250 grams)
2 sweet cooking apples (Fuji, Gala, Pink Ladies) (400 grams)

Recipe method

1. Rinse red cabbage and slice it very thin. Put cabbage in a microwave-safe bowl, cover, and microwave on high for three minutes. The water clinging to the cabbage will turn to steam.
2. Slice apples into quarters and core. Cut each quarter lengthwise two or three times and then across into 1/2-inch pieces.
3. Put apples on top of cabbage, cover, and microwave on high for five more minutes, until apples and cabbage are tender.
4. Toss to mix, then serve hot or at room temperature. Keeps for four days refrigerated.

Recipe tips and notes

• For more zing and to keep cabbage from turning blue when you cook it, sprinkle it with a little vinegar before cooking and toss to coat the leaves.
• If you already have your food processor out for another recipe, use it to slice the cabbage, making this recipe even quicker.
• Make extra Purple Cabbage with Apples for a quick lunch the next day. Just tuck a handful into a pita with hummus.
• Fun fact: the same variety of red-cabbage seeds will produce red cabbage in acidic soil and greenish-yellow cabbage on alkaline soil.