Braised cabbage is more often served as a side dish, but when meat is added to it during cooking, it becomes a full-fledged dish that can even decorate a dinner party.
Features of cooking stewed cabbage with meat
Stewed cabbage with meat is a popular dish of Russian and European cuisine. It goes well with fresh vegetables, salads. There are many ways to prepare it, but there are a few tricks you can make to give it a unique flavor. You need to cook stewed cabbage in a cauldron or saucepan with thick walls and a bottom. Only in such dishes does the dish turn out rich and juicy.
You do not need to cut the cabbage very finely. The slices should be slightly larger than the borscht, since it softens greatly during the stewing process. You can add water during cooking, depending on your taste. If you want a lot of gravy, you need to add liquid several times when stewing. Black pepper, cumin, suneli hops, or other spices can be used as aromatic spices.
Stewed cabbage with pork
Stewed cabbage with pork is a classic dish that everyone will love. To prepare it you will need:
- 1 kg of white cabbage;
- 400 g of pork (medium fat is better);
- 2 onions;
- 1 carrot;
- a little salt;
- 1-1, 5 tbsp tomato paste;
- bay leaf;
- 4 tbsp vegetable oil;
- spice.
Cooking steps:
- Rinse a piece of pork pulp and cut into cubes with a sharp knife (the optimal length and width of the cubes is 3 cm). If there is a frozen semi-finished product on the bone, you must first defrost it and cut the meat from the bones).
- Cut off the top tough leaves from the cabbage head and chop the vegetable. You can use a sharp knife or a special shredder for these purposes. In the latter case, the stripes are very neat. If the strips are too long, you can cut them in half. Salt the cabbage and mash it with your hands.
- Peel the onions and carrots. Chop the onion finely, and it is better to grate the carrots on a coarse grater.
- Heat a little sunflower oil in a frying pan or stewpan, fry the pork pieces for 5-7 minutes, then put onions and carrots, salt. You do not need to deeply fry vegetables. It is enough for the onion to acquire a golden hue, and the carrots to soften slightly.
- Add cabbage to a frying pan or stewpan, add a little more vegetable oil, pepper and fry for 10 minutes. Cabbage can be laid out even with a slide, since during the cooking process it will greatly decrease in volume.
- Add some water, cover the pan with a lid and simmer over very low heat for 30-40 minutes. Stir the cabbage and meat from time to time. When choosing the stewing time, you need to focus on the variety of cabbage. The leaves of winter varieties are tough and such cabbage requires longer culinary processing. The finished cabbage should become soft, acquire a golden hue.
- Open the lid, add the tomato paste, a little water, mix well, then add the bay leaf and simmer for another 5-10 minutes.
It is better to serve the dish to the table hot, laid out in portioned plates or deep bowls.
Stewed cabbage with chicken and tomato juice
Stewed cabbage with chicken is a simple dish that is low in calories. Instead of tomato paste, you can add tomato juice when stewing. To prepare such a delicious homemade dinner, you will need:
- 800 g chicken breast;
- 1.5 kg of fresh cabbage (preferably young);
- 1 glass of tomato juice;
- 2 onions;
- a little salt;
- 1 carrot;
- sweet pepper;
- a little hops-suneli;
- 3 tbsp sour cream;
- a bunch of parsley;
- vegetable oil.
Cooking steps:
- Rinse the chicken breast well, cut off the bone and cut into pieces. If desired, you can use another chicken semi-finished product. A boneless hip works well. With it, the dish will turn out to be more juicy.
- Peel the onion with pepper and carrots. Cut the onion into thin half rings, and grate the carrots. Cut the pepper into cubes. Chop the cabbage thinly. First, you need to cut off all the hard parts of the leaves (especially the upper ones), as they can spoil the taste of the finished dish. Salt chopped cabbage and mash it with your hands. Chop the parsley finely.
- Fry chicken pieces in vegetable oil for 5-8 minutes. Then put onions with carrots, salt, add a little hop-suneli and black pepper. Fry all ingredients for 5-7 minutes, stirring with a wooden spatula.
- Put the cabbage in a saucepan or frying pan, add vegetable oil and fry for about 10 minutes more, gently stirring several times. Cover the dish with a lid, add 1 glass of water and simmer for 20 minutes.
- Open the saucepan, add a glass of tomato juice, some sugar, chopped parsley and sour cream. Simmer over low heat for another 20 minutes. The lid can be opened 5 minutes before the dish is ready.
Stewed cabbage with beef
Vegetables can be stewed with beef, and if you replace some of the fresh cabbage with sauerkraut in the recipe, the taste of the dish will turn out to be even more interesting. To prepare it you will need:
- 700 g beef pulp:
- 400 g fresh cabbage;
- 400 g sauerkraut;
- 1 carrot;
- 2 onions;
- 2-3 tbsp tomato paste;
- a little salt;
- 2 cloves of garlic;
- 2 tsp ground sweet paprika;
- black pepper;
- bay leaf;
- vegetable oil.
Cooking steps:
- Rinse the beef pulp and cut into thin slices, season with salt. You can first cut the flesh into steaks and beat off slightly. This will help make the meat incredibly tender and tender. Fry the meat slices in a separate skillet in vegetable oil. It is better to choose unrefined sunflower seeds. With it, the dish acquires an interesting flavor.
- Chop fresh cabbage, cutting off the hard parts of the leaves, removing the damaged areas. Squeeze sauerkraut slightly. You can rinse it under running water if it tastes too sour.
- Finely chop the carrots and onions after peeling. Carrots can be cut into thin slices if they are young. Peel the garlic and pass through a press.
- Pour a little vegetable oil into a cast-iron cauldron (a saucepan with thick walls and a bottom is also suitable), put on fire and fry the onions and carrots for several minutes. The onion should become transparent. After that put sauerkraut, paprika, chopped garlic in a cauldron, sprinkle with spices and salt, fry for another 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add chopped fresh cabbage. Fry for 5-7 minutes, gently stirring the ingredients.
- Add meat to the cauldron. Dissolve the tomato paste in a glass of warm water and pour it into a cauldron. Simmer meat with cabbage for about 1, 5 hours under a closed lid over very low heat. Add a bay leaf 10 minutes before cooking.
When serving, you can sprinkle each serving with chopped herbs and garnish with slices of fresh cucumber.
Stewed cabbage with meat and mushrooms
To make the stew even more successful, you can add some mushrooms to it. To prepare it you will need:
- 600 g of pork or beef pulp;
- 800 g of fresh white cabbage;
- 300 g of champignons (can be replaced with forest mushrooms);
- bulb;
- large carrots;
- a little salt;
- cumin (to taste);
- tomato paste;
- a bunch of greens;
- 3 potato tubers;
- vegetable oil.
Cooking steps:
- Peel champignons or any forest mushrooms, sort out the damaged areas and chop coarsely enough. Medium-sized champignons can be cut into 2-4 pieces.
- Cut the meat into small cubes, add salt and fry in a pan with the mushrooms.
- Heat vegetable oil in a thick-walled stewpan and fry the onions and carrots in it. The vegetables should soften and take on a golden hue. Add cabbage, salt and fry for about 10 minutes, stirring constantly.
- Add meat with mushrooms and diced potatoes to a saucepan. Pour water into a saucepan until it reaches about the middle of its contents. Stir the tomato paste in warm water and pour into a saucepan too. Simmer for 40 minutes under a closed lid.
- Turn off the stove, open the lid of the saucepan, add chopped herbs (dill, parsley), bay leaf, cumin. If necessary, add some more water, put a closed saucepan in a preheated oven and cook at 180 ° C for another 15 minutes.
Serve the dish immediately. You can decorate cabbage with meat and mushrooms with fresh herbs.
