Veggies, fruits go together in Red Cabbage With Berries

Try this cheerful twist on the traditional sweet and sour red cabbage as a beautiful side to any meat or Eastern European-style noodle dish.

Adding fruit to vegetables isn't as unusual as it might seem. Fruit is used in savory meat and vegetable dishes in many northern European countries. In Germany, Austria and elsewhere, you'll find dried apricots or prunes stuffed into pork roasts or roasted inside a goose. Cabbage is commonly combined with apples.

In Brittany, the northwest corner of France (where the best artichokes, carrots and cabbage are grown in the super-fertile soil, blasted with salt air and plenty of rain), various fruits are often tossed into vegetable dishes. Some examples: Montmorency cherries sprinkled over haricots verts; beets bedecked with black currants; cabbage or cauliflower laced with apples; and spinach combined with green plums.

In this unusual cabbage-fruit combination, fresh or frozen blueberries and dried cranberries are the guest stars, blending in incredibly well. And the color is just gorgeous.