Place cabbage, apples, melted butter or oil, cider vinegar, salt, sugar, pepper, cloves, and bay leaves into the Instant Pot and stir.
Close the lid. Press PRESSURE COOK and cook on HIGH PRESSURE for 3 minutes. Release all pressure immediately.
Taste and add a little more cider vinegar if needed for tang. Remove bay leaves and serve.
For Stovetop
In a 10-inch frying pan, melt the butter or oil. Add in salt, sugar, pepper, cloves, and bay leaves .
Toss apple slices in this mixture.
Add cabbage and stir.
Add in cider vinegar and 1/4 cup of water and cover with a lid.
Cook for 30-40 minutes on a low flame until the cabbage is cooked through. Some people prefer this cooked for 60 minutes so you may want to cook it longer if you like your cabbage super soft.
Do not allow this to release pressure naturally. As soon as the 3 minutes are up, open the valve from sealing to venting, otherwise you will overcook the cabbage.
To make this vegan, use 2 tablespoons of oil in place of the butter.
If you like your Rotkohl or German Red Cabbage recipe tangier, simply add a little more cider vinegar to the dish after it's finished cooking.
Make sure you remove the bay leaves before serving the dish. Biting into a bay leaf is zero fun. Ask me how I know.
You could use green cabbage in a pinch but I think the red cabbage is a little sweeter and is just more traditional.
Any kind of tart or semi-tart apple will work for this.
This recipe can be frozen but I don't recommend it. It works well as leftovers for the next day though. I think it actually tastes better the next day.
The majority of the sugar/carbs in this recipe come from the apples. To reduce carbs, you could substitute Splenda or Truvia and reduce the number of apples used in the recipe.
If you omit the sugar and apples completely, your total carbs are about 10 gms per serving, with 3 gms of fiber for a total of 7 net carbs per serving .