My friends, Amber and Stevie invited me over for barbecue this evening. I love it when Stevie barbecues – he has a great big drum barbecue and he has my Weber until I drag it home some day.
He said “I have a lot of meat, do you girls want to make potato salad?” and I said I would be happy to.
Usually, when you think about potato salad, you think about russets. They had red potatoes, and not too many of them, I had some, so I said I would go home, make the salad there and include my potatoes.
When I got home, I started pulling things out of the refrigerator I thought I might need – red potatoes, mayonnaise, carrot, onion – and then I spied with my little eye, a half a red cabbage and an apple.
I thought to myself, that would be good, red cabbage and apple, and how about some bacon, kind of like a spinach salad! Ah ha! Genius!
While I was making the red cabbage salad, I started water boiling for my red potato salad so I could steam the potatoes just like I regularly do. My intention was steamed red potatoes, only cold.
When I brought the salads back to Stevie, he lifted the lid on the red cabbage salad, I told him what it was, and he said “Sounds good, looks ugly”.
By the end of the night, he said “I loved that cabbage salad. That was really good!”
I went home very happy, and now, I’ll share my success with you:
Red Cabbage Salad
You can make this with the ready made Hormel Real Bacon Bits, or you can cook bacon and use the fat and crumble the bacon yourself.
Ingredients
- 1/2 head of red cabbage, large shred
- 1/2 onion, sliced
- 1 1/2 teaspoons bacon fat
- 2 tablespoons Balsamic vinegar
- 1 tablespoon white sugar
- 1 teaspoon water
- 1 teaspoon caraway seeds
- 1/4 cup crumbled bacon
- 1/2 cup raisins
- 1 apple sliced into match sticks
Directions
Melt the bacon fat in a large skillet. Add the cabbage and onions. Sauté until the onion is slightly translucent, then add the vinegar, reduce the heat and cover. Let the cabbage steam for about 5 to 10, then check it. If it is still very crisp, continue cooking it until it is tender, but not soft.
Add the sugar, water, caraway seeds, bacon and raisins, cover and steam for another minute or so.
Remove from the heat and put in a large bowl, then toss in the apple sticks.
Serve at room temperature.
Serves 6
Steamed Red Potato Salad
I love steamed red potatoes with plenty of butter and sour cream. This will remind you of that, but it’s a little healthier.
Ingredients
- 1 dozen red potatoes, halved and quartered
- 1/2 onion, chopped very finely
- 1/2 cup plain yogurt
- 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
- 1 tablespoon sour cream 1
- 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
- 1 tablespoon parsley (fresh is best, but dried will do in a pinch)
Directions
Steam the potatoes until they are fork tender. Remove from the heat, drain and put into a large bowl.
Combine the remaining ingredients, pour over the potatoes, and toss to mix. Take the salad and put it in a nice serving dish.
Serves 6
Rant!
I do not understand why people buy that stuff that says it is sour cream, but it has all this other stuff in it like whey, modified food starch, sodium phosphate, sodium citrate, guar gum, carageenan, calcium sulface, potassium sorbate (preservative) and locust bean gum.
Sour cream does not need all those extra ingredients, just cultured cream is necessary. Alta Dena, Daisy and Knudsen brands are just cultured cream.
