Two Main Ingredients, Almost No Effort
Cabbage is transformed by high heat and patience. Left alone in a hot pan it caramelises into something sweet and nutty that bears no resemblance to boiled cabbage. Add browned pork sausage, caraway seeds and a sharp splash of cider vinegar at the end, and you have a genuinely excellent lunch made from two cheap ingredients in twenty minutes.
Ingredients
Serves 4 | Cost: $6.25 per serving | Total: $25.00 | Ready in 20 min
- 500 g (1 lb 2 oz) pork sausages, cut into thick rounds
- 1 small green cabbage, cored and shredded
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 teaspoons caraway seeds
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
- Sea salt and black pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Brown the sausage. Heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in a large heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Add the sausage rounds in a single layer and cook for 4–5 minutes without moving them, until well browned, then turn and brown the other side. Remove to a plate.
- Toast the caraway. Add the remaining oil to the rendered fat in the pan, then the caraway seeds and smoked paprika. Stir for 30 seconds until fragrant, taking care not to let the paprika catch and burn.
- Caramelise the cabbage. Add the shredded cabbage with a good pinch of salt. Press it down into the pan and leave undisturbed for 4 minutes to catch and brown, then toss and repeat twice more, for about 10 minutes total.
- Combine and deglaze. Return the sausage to the pan and toss through the cabbage. Pour in the cider vinegar and scrape the base of the pan to lift the browned bits, cooking for 1 minute until the liquid has almost gone.
- Finish. Season generously with black pepper, check the salt, and fold through the chopped dill just before dividing between bowls.
Nutritional & Dietary Notes
Dairy-Free
There is no milk, cream, butter or cheese in this recipe. Richness comes from the meat, the cooking fat and the aromatics rather than from dairy, which makes it a comfortable choice for anyone who is lactose intolerant or avoiding dairy altogether.
Gluten-Free
Every ingredient in this recipe is naturally free from wheat, barley and rye. If you are cooking for someone with coeliac disease, double-check any stock, sauce or spice blend you buy in, as gluten-containing thickeners and malt derivatives are common hidden additions in commercial products.
Keto
Carbohydrates are kept deliberately low here. The bulk of the energy in this dish comes from quality protein and natural fats, so it slots neatly into a ketogenic day without pushing you out of ketosis. If you are tracking closely, weigh any starchy vegetables and adjust the portion to suit your own daily carbohydrate target.
Featured HOTRO.ca Product
This recipe is built around Pork Sausage from HOTRO.ca. We source premium BC-raised and ethically farmed meats and slow-simmered bone broth, so the quality of the core ingredient does most of the work for you. Substituting a lesser product will change the result more than any other single change you could make to this recipe.
Browned pork sausage tossed with caramelised cabbage, caraway and a splash of cider vinegar.