My Dutch-American Red Cabbage Stamppot

We finally got our new stove after having done without for months. Long story, which I’m not going to bore you with. But now we have a stove and the weather is wonderfully wintry. So the first meals I made were stamppots.

As I’ve mentioned before, a stamppot is a typically Dutch dish, made up of potatoes mashed with different vegetables, and each potato and vegetable stamppot is served with a certain meat. To me, stamppotten are comfort food.

Yesterday I made rode kool (red cabbage) stamppot. It’s served with meatballs, but I’m too lazy to make meatballs, so I just make a ground meat mixture.

Recipe for 4-6:

10 -12 average potatoes
1/2 large red cabbage or 1 small one, of course
1 large apple
1 large onion
2 handfuls raisins
lots of curry and turmeric
about 5 cloves (optional, because good luck finding them before someone bites into one)
salt, pepper
garlic (optional)
milk (almond milk does nicely)
butter (I use olive oil)
Ground beef or whatever meat you like (I use Italian sausage style ground turkey)

Clean potatoes and cut out the eyes (or peel them completely if you want)
Chop the cabbage into bits
Chop the onion
Chop the apple (not too small)

Boil the potatoes in a large pot with some salt and steam the cabbage in a steamer placed over the pot until the potatoes are done.

Meanwhile, heat some olive oil in a skillet and stir-fry the onions until they begin to brown. Add the ground meat and the spices and stir until meat is close to done. Then add the raisins and apples and let simmer until the potatoes and cabbage are done.

Mash the potatoes and cabbage, add a shot of milk, some butter or a dash of olive oil, and salt and pepper to taste. Then I chuck the meat mixture in with it and stir it all up, but you can also serve the stamppot and spoon a serving of the meat mixture over each plate.

Either way, it’s a great winter meal, and done in 30 minutes.

I also make an American fusion version, which I call red stamppot, around Thanksgiving and Christmas. I use sweet potatoes, red onions and cranberrries instead of raisins.