This Cabbage, Orange winter salad is a very similar salad to one my mom used to make when I was a little girl growing up in the Mediterranean. I love serving this salad with casseroles or most winter meals as it makes for a great side dish and it reminds me of back home.
My mom is a master in making stuffed cabbage, a typical dish in the Mediterranean & Balkan countries. For those of you that know how stuffed cabbage is made, you know that you don’t use the whole cabbage. After you boil it and let it cool down, you stuff cabbage leaves but you do have to cut certain parts out. Also, when you get close to the core, the leaves are too small to stuff. So you do have quite a bit of cabbage left over that you can make a salad with!!
Some of the things that I remember growing up in the Mediterranean region and that have remained with me even now are:
- Cook with the seasons – Food is more delicious and nutritious when it is fresh and local. Less processing is always better.
- Use everything, don’t waste food – women in my life were experts in using every part of a vegetable or meat to create a new recipe on the spot. Nothing went to waste. This made cooking less expensive and stretched the budget a bit further.
My mom used to make this salad with cabbage, oranges, olives and onion. I ended up adding some pomegranate seeds because I like how it looks:). You can leave pomegranate out if you don’t like it or have young kids. The seeds are not exactly toddler friendly and may pose a choking hazard.
If you like orange salads, please check out another one of my recipes: Orange, Arugula Salad or Beets & Orange Salad or Orange and Leeks Salad.
Orange & Olive Oil Dressing
The most typical dressing is olive oil and vinegar, but I have added an extra dressing option below in the recipe in case you are making this salad for guests you want to impress!! The dressing is Yummy!!!
I simply squeeze a small orange then add olive oil and white balsamic vinegar. You can blend it or just mix it up by shaking it in a mason jar and serve it with your salad.
Blood Oranges
I used blood oranges for this salad instead of the regular oranges. Besides being delicious, blood oranges also give a nice color contrast with the cabbage. They still have the citrus flavor of the regular oranges, but they are a little bit sweeter which makes them a perfect choice for salads and dressings. Their color is gorgeous for the season as well and they’re also loaded with lots of Vitamin C.
Ways to Serve this Recipe
Enjoy this salad as a side dish. It goes especially well with hearty dishes because of the oranges. It’s perfect for lamb, poultry, meat and pork dishes!
Cabbage, Orange Winter Salad
Ingredients
- 0.5 cabbage
- 4 small blood oranges
- 0.5 cup kalamata olives
- 1 shallot you can use white onion too
- 1 pomegranate
- 5 tbsps olive oil
- 5 tbsps white balsamic vinegar
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Boil the cabbage for 5 minutes, don't over cook it because you don't want it to get soggy. Put it aside to cool after you have drained the water.
- Peel and slice 3 out of the 4 oranges in desired shapes. Peel and slice the shallot, place shallot in cold water to avoid the smell and tears.
- Cut the pomegranate, clean the pomegranate seeds and put them aside.
- Once the cabbage is cool to the touch, you can chop it and arrange in a serving platter. Add oranges on top. At this point you can chill for about 30-60 minutes before meal time.
- Once you're ready to serve the food, then add olives and finely chopped shallot. Garnish with pomegranate seeds on top to create a colorful platter.
Dressing
- Squeeze one blood orange. Add olive oil and white balsamic vinegar. Blend or mix with a spoon. Shake well before serving as oil will separate when dressing stands for a while. Pour on the platter or over individual servings!
- Alternative dressing – just use olive oil and vinegar, this salad is delicious on its own.
- Add salt as desired on the salad!! I've noticed that i add a bit more salt to this type of salad then any other ones, it really enhances the citrus flavor.
Notes
- I often use leftover cabbage after making stuffed cabbage in order to make this salad. Since you can’t control how much cabbage you’ll have leftover, adjust oranges and dressing accordingly.
Nutrition Label
Nutrition
If you would like to save this recipe for later, please pin any images from this post to your boards Pinterest. Thank you:)
More Cabbage Recipes
I love cabbage recipes and often cook with cabbage in winter time. Here are some additional cabbage recipes for you:
David Musielak
This looks both delicious and healthy! Thanks for sharing an amazing recipe. We will certainly be trying this one out!!
admin
Thank you, hope you like it:)
Nadja
This looks incredibly yum. And man, do I miss blood oranges! We’re a worldschooling family from South Africa now living in India, and I completely resonate with eating in-season. I’ve always tried to (but convenience of having everything available didn’t always make it easy). Where we live in India, however, I have no choice: Nothing is available out-of-season! A wonderful enforced lifestyle change!
admin
I struggle with eating in season too!! In most Mediterranean countries that’s the way to eat, but now i live in Florida (US) which has a tropical climate and you can find tomatoes, berries and other produce year round. I remember the excitement of eating cherries in June and grapes in September back home.
Holly Bird
Oh my goodness another awesome recipe!! I am going to try this right after Christmas, you are changing the way I look at food!
admin
Awww that’s the best compliment Holly!! Thank you