How to make Cabbage Stew with Meat and Prunes – with Video

Cabbage stew with prunes and mushrooms is an incredibly tasty Ukrainian dish that is similar to the famous Polish Bigos, also known as Hunter’s Stew. In Halychyna (Galicia), the region in Western Ukraine that borders Poland, this stew is called “Bigus.” However, in the Ukrainian recipe that we know, we use a slightly different set of ingredients and don’t add tomatoes.

Cabbage stew

 

We found that prunes, aromatic cloves, and dry or fresh mushrooms add a completely different twist to the taste and tomatoes are just not required. We make this cabbage stew with turkey; however, you can use chicken or pork too.  Prunes and cloves are very important ingredients as they create special smokey, aromatic and sweet tastes.

We posted a video on Youtube to illustrate this recipe and recommend watching it before you start cooking this dish:

The vegetarian stew where only cabbage, prunes and mushrooms are used is a very tasty dish too. Therefore, we show two variations so you can modify this recipe to suit your diet preferences. We used fresh cabbage; however, you can add some sauerkraut if you want. By the way, in this recipe no need to add dill or parsley, so common in Ukrainian cuisine. The taste of this dish is quite elegant and requires a different bouquet of flavors.

Cabbage stew

How to Make Cabbage Stew with Meat and Prunes

Lesya
This is a delicious and unique Ukrainian dish that is very popular in Western Ukraine. To prepare it you need cabbage, meat, prunes, mushrooms, and one very important ingredient - cloves.
Prep Time 20 mins
Cook Time 1 hr 30 mins
Course Dinner, Lunch, Main Course
Cuisine Ukrainian
Servings 4 people

Equipment

  • 1 Skillet
  • 1 Cutting board
  • 1 Chef's knife

Ingredients
  

  • 1 cabbage
  • 1 pound turkey (or chicken) breast
  • 25 prunes
  • 4 mushrooms shiitake, brown, or portobello
  • 2 onions
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • 2 carrots medium-sized
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 4 tbsp cooking oil
  • ½ tbsp paprika
  • 3 cloves
  • black pepper to taste
  • salt to taste
  • 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
  • ½ cups mushroom broth optional

Instructions
 

  • If you choose to use dry mushrooms, soak them overnight and boil them the next day. Strain the broth and keep it for the stew.
  • Get all the ingredients ready for cooking: shred cabbage, grate carrots, and chop mushrooms, onions, garlic, meat, and prunes. Tip 1
  • Preheat the frying pan, reduce the heat to medium, and add vegetable oil. Add chopped onion and garlic and sauté them until golden. Add mushrooms, then in about 1-2 minutes add grated carrots, mix well, and sauté for 5 minutes.
  • Add chopped meat to the frying pan. Sprinkle with black pepper, salt, and paprika, mix well with other ingredients. Add bay leaves and simmer under the closed lid for 10 minutes, until the meat is almost ready.
    Adding meat to frying pan
  • Add shredded cabbage, mix well, add water (or mushroom broth) if necessary.
  • Add cloves and prunes to the mixture on the skillet, cover with the lid and stew for 20-25 minutes on low heat. Stir it one or two times and add salt to taste at the end if needed.
    Add prunes to frying pan
  • Serve warm. You won’t need any additional sauce for this dish. Tip 2

Notes

Tip 1: Add salt to shredded cabbage and mix it well in a bowl by hand so the cabbage becomes softer and releases some juice. If you don’t have sauerkraut to mix it with, add a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar – it will make the cabbage a little softer and the taste a bit sour (or you can even marinate the cabbage with apple cider vinegar overnight). 
Tip 2: The dish will taste even better if you let it stay overnight in the refrigerator. It takes some time for all the ingredients to enrich each other.
Keyword Cabbage stew, dish with cabbage, Prunes, Ukraine, Ukrainian recipes

Vegetarian Cabbage Stew

Lesya
This is a vegetarian version of the original recipe. The vegetarian cabbage stew with mushrooms and prunes is as delicious as the cabbage stew with meat. In both recipes, prunes, mushrooms and cloves play the leading role.
Prep Time 30 mins
Cook Time 1 hr
Course Dinner, Lunch, Main Course
Cuisine Ukrainian
Servings 4 people

Equipment

  • 1 Skillet
  • 1 Pot 5 quart
  • 1 Cutting board
  • 1 Chef's knife

Ingredients
  

  • 2 cups sauerkraut or freshly sliced cabbage
  • 15 prunes
  • ½ pound mushrooms brown, shiitake, or portobello
  • 1 red sweet pepper
  • 1 onion
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • 1 carrot Small
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 4 tbsp cooking oil
  • ½ tbsp paprika
  • 3 cloves
  • black pepper to taste
  • salt to taste
  • 1 tbsp valsamic vinegar
  • ½ cup mushroom broth optional

Instructions
 

  • If you choose to use dry mushrooms, soak them overnight and boil them the next day. Strain the broth and keep it for the stew.
  • If you use sauerkraut, rinse it with cold water so it is not too sour. Tip 1
  • Get all the ingredients ready for cooking: grate carrots, and chop mushrooms, onions, garlic, red pepper, and prunes.
    Vegetarian cabbage stew ingredients
  • Preheat the frying pan, reduce the heat to medium, and add vegetable oil. Add chopped onion and garlic and sauté until golden. Add mushrooms, in 1-2 minutes - grated carrots, and red pepper, mix well and sauté for about 5 minutes. Tip 2
    Vegetarian cabbage stew in a frying pan
  • Add shredded cabbage, mix well, and add water (or mushroom broth).
  • Sprinkle the vegetables with black pepper and paprika, add bay leaves and simmer under a closed lid for 10 minutes.
  • Add cloves and prunes, cover the vegetables with a lid, and stew for 20-25 minutes on low heat. Stir it one or two times and add salt to taste at the end.
    Vegetarian cabbage stew ready
  • Serve warm. You won't need any additional sauce for this dish. Tip 3
    Serving vegetarian cabbage stew

Notes

Tip 1: If you don’t have sauerkraut, use the regular white or green cabbage, add salt, and squeeze the cabbage by hand to make it softer and juicier, then add a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar to make the cabbage taste a little sour (or you can even marinate the cabbage with apple cider vinegar overnight).
Tip 2: Use two frying pans to make the process faster – one for onion and carrots, and the second – for mushrooms.
Tip 3: The dish will taste even better if you let it stay overnight in the refrigerator. It takes some time for all the ingredients to enrich each other.


Keyword Cabbage stew, dish with cabbage, Mushrooms, Prunes, Ukraine, Ukrainian cuisine, Ukrainian recipes, Vegetarian, vegetarian food

What is the best type of cabbage for cabbage stew?

Fresh white cabbage is the best type of cabbage for cabbage stew. It can be mixed in equal proportion with sauerkraut. You can use just fresh cabbage and add a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar to it, but in our recipe we use balsamic vinegar. Nappa cabbage is not used in Ukrainian cuisine. We didn’t try this recipe with red cabbage or Savoy cabbage so we can’t comment on how this dish would taste with these kinds of cabbage.

What is the best type of meat for cabbage stew?

The best type of meat for cabbage stew is fresh pork. However, you can use any other kind of fresh meat too – chicken, turkey, or veal — just as you would for Ukrainian cabbage rolls.

What types of mushrooms to use in cabbage stew?

Use dry mushrooms, such as boletus, in this cabbage stew (but soak them overnight first). If you don’t have dry mushrooms, you can use fresh portobello or shitake, or just brown mushrooms (champignon). Mushrooms are very popular in Ukrainian cuisine. Check out another vegetarian recipe, which uses mushrooms – Shuhy (Ukrainian beet spread).

Conclusion:

In conclusion, the cabbage stew with prunes and meat is a simple and delicious recipe that you can make from affordable products, such as cabbage, carrot, mushrooms, and meat. However, to achieve the smokey and unique taste, you will also need to prunes and cloves. All the ingredients are natural and complement each other. Please add your comments, we would like to know if you liked this unique Ukrainian dish. Thank you for visiting our recipes. Pray for brave people in Ukraine!

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