In this video, join Chef John as he demonstrates how to create an amazing Charred Red Cabbage & Carrot Salad. With easy-to-follow steps, you'll master the art of charring vegetables and crafting a colorful, flavorful side dish. Chef John's expert tips and straightforward instructions make this salad simple and easy to make, meaning you won’t hesitate to use this recipe when you need a quick side dish.
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00 Hello, this is Chef John from FoodWishes.com with...
00:06 Charred Red Cabbage and Carrot Salad!
00:09 That's right, charred cabbage is having a moment!
00:12 Or so I heard from a friend recently.
00:14 And I started laughing.
00:15 And he's like, "Bro, I'm serious!"
00:18 And I'm like, "Really?
00:19 And also, don't call me bro!"
00:20 But anyway, it does make sense, since it's one of the most delicious things you can eat.
00:25 And I'm going to show you what I think is by far the best way to do it.
00:28 And to get started, we will take a knife and we will halve core and then cut up some red
00:33 cabbage.
00:34 Which is very simple, especially if you have some nice small tight heads like this.
00:38 Alright, once it's halved and you can see the core, we will just make two angled cuts
00:42 at the bottom.
00:43 And we'll remove that piece and toss it in the compost.
00:47 And by the way, I would have called this purple cabbage, but I was not consulted and they
00:51 went with red.
00:52 And then once the core's been removed, we can lay it down on the flat side.
00:56 And we'll cut that into about one inch pieces.
00:59 And since these heads were very small, that's all I'm going to have to do.
01:02 Okay, if you're using a larger head, you might want to quarter it before you slice, so these
01:07 strips aren't too long and it's a little more fork friendly.
01:10 Okay, please, always be friendly to your forks.
01:13 So I'm going to go ahead and cut up two small heads like that, since we're going to want
01:17 about two and a quarter, two and a half pounds total.
01:20 Oh, and if we were doing some kind of raw slaw with this, we could go ahead and trim
01:24 out some of those tougher, larger ribs.
01:26 But with this charring technique, we don't have to, since those are actually going to
01:30 end up nice and tender.
01:32 And then while we're slicing, we'll also take a half a red onion or any color onion, and
01:36 we will slice that fairly thickly.
01:40 And as far as the carrots go, we're actually not going to cut those.
01:43 We're going to use a peeler later.
01:45 So stay tuned for that.
01:46 But in the meantime, we'll go ahead and grease a foil lined sheet pan with a couple teaspoons
01:50 of vegetable oil.
01:52 And once that's been accomplished, we'll go ahead and transfer on our cabbage, arranging
01:56 that cut side up, if at all possible.
01:59 And the reason I'm calling for about two and a half pounds of cabbage is because that should
02:03 just about perfectly fit one standard size sheet pan.
02:06 And once we have that arranged as shown, we will drizzle over a little more oil, all right,
02:11 not a ton, just like a couple of tablespoons.
02:14 And after we've done that, we can take this and head to the oven, but we're not going
02:18 to roast and we're not going to bake.
02:20 We are actually going to broil, which is that heating element at the top of the oven that
02:24 hardly anybody uses.
02:26 And we will broil that on high for about five minutes or so, or until we have some nice
02:31 initial charring.
02:32 And our cabbage hopefully looks like this.
02:35 And once we've gotten some nice charring on that side, we will use a spatula and also
02:39 maybe some tongs, and we'll try to flip this over to the other uncharred side, at which
02:44 point we'll repeat the exact same process.
02:47 But please be careful, because by now your broiler is very hot, so the second side is
02:52 probably not going to take as long to char, so check it after a couple minutes.
02:56 And also broilers have some spots that are hotter than others, so don't be afraid to
03:00 turn the pan and move it around if you have to.
03:03 And when we say char, we mean the edges are getting a little bit black.
03:06 All right, we don't mean we're burning the entire piece, although some of the small pieces
03:11 might, and that's okay.
03:13 But the point is, we're just going for a very superficial char.
03:16 But anyway, after charring both sides of the cabbage, we will go ahead and scatter our
03:20 onions over the top.
03:22 And once we have those fairly evenly distributed, we can start peeling our carrots over the
03:26 top, using nice long firm strokes, since we want to try to get the longest, thickest pieces
03:32 we can.
03:33 All right, the first few might be a little bit skinny, but as we peel down, they will
03:37 get wider and thicker.
03:39 And I'm calling for two carrots here, but we're not going to use all the carrot, since
03:43 once we peel to a certain point, it's going to be too hard to get a nice thick piece.
03:48 And once that happens, we will switch to the other carrot and peel as much as that as we
03:51 can.
03:53 And once our surface has been successfully carroted, we'll go ahead and do a little bit
03:56 of arranging, just so everything's getting about the same amount of heat.
04:01 And that's it, we'll pop that back under the broiler.
04:03 Oh, and I'm going to stop filming going in and out of the oven, since I think you got
04:07 the idea.
04:09 But anyway, we'll broil those for about three minutes, or until our carrots and onions start
04:13 to soften up, and hopefully look like this.
04:16 And that's it, at this point we can finally season this up, which I'm going to do with
04:19 a generous amount of kosher salt, since under-salted vegetables don't taste good.
04:25 And then we'll also sprinkle over some garam masala, which is an amazing Indian spice blend.
04:31 But if you don't have that, you can also use any kind of prepared curry powder.
04:35 And then we'll finish up with a few shakes of cayenne, since that's never a bad idea.
04:41 At which point we'll take our tongs, and give this a very thorough tossing.
04:45 And once we've done that, and we feel like everything's been nicely mixed, I think we
04:49 should take our spatula, and sort of push everything from the sides a little bit towards
04:53 the middle.
04:54 Okay, now that our veggies have softened up, and are less rigid, they're taking up less
04:58 space.
04:59 And by gathering those closer to the middle, we'll have everything closer to the hottest
05:03 part of the broiler, which is almost always the center.
05:07 And that's it, we'll take that back to the broiler, for one last charring.
05:11 Or at least this was my last charring.
05:13 And no, that is not burnt.
05:15 That is charred.
05:17 And I would say perfectly charred.
05:19 But we're not just charring, we have to cook that cabbage until it's tender enough to eat.
05:23 So make sure you take a taste or two.
05:26 And mine was perfect, but if yours isn't, give it a toss and put it back in.
05:30 Or you're the one that's going to have to determine how far to go.
05:33 I mean you are after all the babish, of your charred red cabbage.
05:37 But like I said, I determined mine was perfect.
05:41 And once that is, we will transfer it into a bowl, and we will finish this up with a
05:45 very simple dressing.
05:47 Starting with a little drizzle of honey, since we really do want some sweetness here, to
05:52 balance the bitterness and the savoriness.
05:54 Oh, and it's very hard to remove honey from a dressing.
05:58 So start with a little, and if you want to add more later, you can.
06:02 That is just you cooking.
06:04 And then we'll also want to add in about 3 or 4 tablespoons of vinegar.
06:07 And I like to use a rice vinegar, because it's fairly neutral and has a little bit of
06:11 sweetness to it.
06:12 But anything you like will work.
06:14 And once we add the vinegar, we'll give this another thorough tossing.
06:18 At which point we'll grab a fork and give it a taste and evaluate.
06:22 And mostly I'm checking for salt, and it almost always needs another pinch.
06:27 So once I was able to finally stab a piece and taste it, I went ahead and tossed them
06:30 in.
06:31 And then once it's seasoned perfectly, we'll finish up with the last two ingredients.
06:36 A little bit of olive oil, or the oil of your choice.
06:40 Plus a small handful of freshly sliced green onions.
06:43 And that's it.
06:44 We'll take a spoon and give that one last mix.
06:47 At which point we can transfer that into something nice looking to serve it in.
06:51 And yes, since I do have to take some contractually obligated pictures, I did spend a few minutes
06:55 arranging things on the top, so it would look nice.
06:59 And by a few minutes I mean like 15.
07:02 But eventually I stopped and finished up with a few more green onions.
07:06 And that's it.
07:07 My charred red cabbage and carrot salad was ready to enjoy.
07:12 So I grabbed a fork and dug in.
07:14 And that my friends, besides looking absolutely gorgeous, is one of the best tasting things
07:19 you'll ever put in your mouth.
07:21 Not just the best tasting cabbage, or best tasting vegetables.
07:25 Like one of the best tasting things, period.
07:27 And if you've never enjoyed something like this before, you're probably thinking it has
07:31 to taste burnt, and bitter, and unpleasant.
07:35 But it doesn't.
07:36 Not even close.
07:37 Alright, yes, there's definitely a little bit of bitterness from the charring.
07:40 But it's that bitter flavor profile that amplifies all the sweet and savory tastes.
07:45 And unless you make this and enjoy it yourself, me trying to describe it is just not going
07:50 to do it justice.
07:51 And yes, this would obviously make a stunning side dish for any special occasion dinner.
07:57 But besides the obvious side dish use, this is so savory and so satisfying.
08:02 Just a bowl of this, with maybe a poached egg, and a piece of buttered bread, I think
08:07 would pretty much make a perfect meal.
08:09 So I plan on doing both.
08:12 And I served some here with some beautiful roasted lamb.
08:15 And I think I need sharper forks.
08:17 I seem to be having a problem lately.
08:20 Come on Chef John, you can do it.
08:22 Oh yeah, there we go.
08:25 But no matter how you enjoy this, it truly is an incredible thing to eat.
08:29 And I really do hope you give this a try soon.
08:32 So please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts, a printable written recipe, and much
08:37 more info as usual.
08:40 And as always, enjoy.
08:47 [music]
08:51 [BLANK_AUDIO]