I just love simple recipes. Today’s recipe, a cabbage, apple, and onion saute is one of my absolute favorite side dishes. Just 4 ingredients (5 if you add salt) of napa cabbage, apple, and onion cooking in bacon grease. Oh my word, it is heaven in a skillet.
Now before you go clicking on the x because I said bacon grease, hear me out. Bacon grease has been demonized but honestly, it’s pretty darn good for us. Bacon fat is more monounsaturated fat than saturated fat (surprise!), a source of phosophatidyl choline a powerful antioxidant, and is heat stable. (source) We want heat stable fats! Olive oil and other fats tend to turn carcinogenic (cancer causing) when expose to even low amounts of heat. Olive oil is great to put on top of a salad, not so healthy to cook with. The most important part about cooking with bacon grease is that it tastes great. Healthy food is allowed to taste good, I promise.
To make this, I like to layer the onion on the bottom so it carmelizes a bit then the cabbage and apple. Stir it around frequently until the cabbage starts to darken and become soft. You can cook it until it’s as soft as you like your vegetables. I usually saute this for around 8 minutes and the cabbage still has a slight bit of crunch to it. Taste as you go and cook it until it reaches the level of doneness you like your veggies.
Cabbage Apple Onion Saute
Ingredients
- 1/2 head napa cabbage
- 1/2 yellow onion
- 1 gala apple
- 1 tbsp bacon grease
- salt, to taste
Instructions
- In a large skillet ( I love the flavor cast iron gives), on medium heat, melt bacon grease.
- Rough chop cabbage and apple, and finely chop onion.
- Layer onions on the bottom then cabbage and apple. Let cook for about 2 minutes. Then start stirring so that everything cooks evenly.
- Cook until desired "doneness." Salt if you feel it needs it.
Paleo Chicken “Ramen” Bowl
Looks tasty! And I agree, bacon fat makes everything taste better. I’ll have to fine some bacon from pastured pigs and try this recipe. I’m not a huge fan of cabbage, but I bet the bacon will make it taste better.
I made something like this last week but without the apples! I can’t wait to try this! I bet the apples give it just a bit of sweetness. Yum! I absolutely love cabbage and since I can’t eat it raw because of my thyroid issues I love it cooked with bacon! Thanks!
Yeah I love the hint of sweet the apples give and bacon grease is definitely the best!
This looks awesome and so simple! I am excitecd to try. The only change I will make is use coconut oil in place of the bacon grease. Thanks for the new recipe!
I’m sure it will be fabulous with coconut oil as well.
This sounds fantastic! I have a paleo friend who uses bacon grease for everything, even salad dressing. I don’t know if I would go that far, but I think it probably adds some nice flavoring to this dish. I will have to try it to find out for myself! Thank you for sharing this!
I don’t think I would use it in salad dressings but I love the flavor it gives certain dishes for sure. I really enjoy the bacon flavor with the cabbage, it adds a lot to it. Let me know how you like the recipe!
We love combination of cabbage and apples. Adding Bacon will be a great treat! Thank you for sharing this yummy quick recipe.
This is a great side dish for pork loin