Last Updated on January 11, 2020 by Chef Mireille
Haluska or Kaposztas Teszta – Hungarian Cabbage Noodles is a simple side dish to compliment any holiday meal. It’s very customizable as you can add any variety of herbs and spices as you desire.
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. For most of us, it no longer symbolizes any celebration of Pilgrims when we understand the atrocities done to the Native American community. For me, it is a celebration of family and good food. It’s wonderful that it comes so close to Christmas. That way Thanksgiving can be spent with one partner’s family and Christmas can be spent with the other one’s family. Couples don’t have to alternate years to spend holidays with their families.
I often host large groups of people for Thanksgiving. I have a wide circle of friends and family and especially if I have family visiting from another country, I have had up to 25 people over for Thanksgiving. When you have that many people, the menu takes careful consideration and menu planning starts several weeks in advance. Being mindful of the different dietary restrictions and preferences guests may have is important so that everyone has a good time and enjoyed their food, whether they are vegetarian or gluten free and whether they prefer spicy or bland food.
Have you already started your menu planning? You might want to check out this collection of Healthy Side Dishes I put together.
https://globalkitchentravels.com/2018/09/16-healthy-side-dishes-for-thanksgiving/
I have a friend of my Mom’s who sometimes comes for Thanksgiving and she does not like any seasoning at all. For her, I always make sure I have simple things like mashed potatoes and glazed carrots, with no extra herbs or spices.
Since I have chosen as my BM theme this week to pick one letter of the alphabet and present 3 countries’ recipes that begin with that letter, Hungary came into the mix when I decided upon H. I discovered this simple side dish of cabbage and noodles. At first, I thought it was too bland. However, many of us struggle to come up with simple dishes that are still delicious when our natural palates usually go to spice. I thought it might come in handy to those of you already starting your holiday menu planning.
Customizing Haluska
What I love about this dish is that it is so customizable. Although the traditional version is seasoned simply with salt and pepper, modern versions often add some more ingredients for more flavor like onions, mushrooms and bacon.
In this version, I have spiced it up a bit, but still using ingredients that are used in this cuisine keeping it Hungarian.
Serve it lots of soft butter and hot paprika, Hungary’s favorite spice!
Perfecting Haluska
Even if you keep it simple with just the base ingredients, they key to the flavor of this dish is cooking the cabbage long and slow so it caramelizes. Think of the difference in flavor between plain sautéed onions and caramelized onions. It makes a HUGE difference, so be patient when cooking the cabbage and this simple dish will reward you with so much flavor.
Cabbage Recipes
I think cabbage is such an underutilized vegetable. It is so cost efficient and versatile and is actually one of my favorite veggies. It is so quick and easy to cook up! Check out some of my other cabbage recipes from around the world.
- Cabbage Foogath (Indian)
- Colcannon (Irish)
- Sweet & Sour Cabbage (German)
- Cabbage Paprikash (another Hungarian version)
- Curtido – Pickled Cabbage Salad (Mexican)
- Cabbage Corn Soup (Thai)
- Indian Spiced Cabbage & Fennel
- Cabbage & Green Plantain Poriyal (Indian)
Haluska or Kaposztas Teszta – Hungarian Cabbage Noodles
Ingredients
- 12 oz. egg noodles
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 6 cups sliced cabbage
- 1/2 teaspoon celery seed
- 1 teaspoon Hungarian hot paprika
- salt and black pepper to taste
- 3 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
- soft butter garnish
- Hungarian hot paprika garnish
Instructions
- In a large pot of boiling water, cook noodles until al dente.
- Drain, rinse with cold water and set aside.
- On low heat, melt butter in a wide skillet or a wok. Add cabbage and once the cabbage softens, add the celery seed.
- Continue to cook on low heat for about 15 minutes until the cabbage is very soft.
- Raise the heat to medium high and cook, stirring often, until the cabbage starts to brown and caramelize, about 10 minutes.
- Add noodles, paprika, salt, pepper and parsley. Mix well until well incorporated and cook for another 2 minutes.
- Toss with additional butter and hot paprika, as desired.
Do you know anyone else who likes learning about international food, culture, history and travel? Bring them over here to join the party! Don’t forget to use those share buttons!
Start Here to find out how the Schizo Chef can help you with your cooking, travel and other needs!
If you like this recipe, PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT & SUBSCRIBE!
Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this BM#93
Interesting Hungarian Noodles, thanks for sharing how to get prefect Haluska. Looks like a filling meal. Kids will definitely enjoy this dish without any fuss.
it’s a simple dish that is so easy to customize for your own palate!
Very interesting noodles. I found the use of celery seed interesting. Wonder how it tastes. I agree that cabbage is an under-utilised vegetable.
celery seeds has a taste similar to caraway but it’s funny I like celery seed but not caraway – go figure 🙂
I used to add cabbage instead of onions in all recipes during a period. I love how it gives a distinct flavour in dishes. I know many who hate cabbage, but I love it. This dish combining caramelized cabbage and noodles sounds so yum..
yes it is a simple combination but very good as a neutral side dish
This is surely such a fantastic recipe Mir. Planning menus for such a huge crowd is so tough..do share your menus and plans, I love to read about it..
yes it can be challenging – one day I will have to write down all my notes and do a post on it – maybe sooner rather than later 🙂
cook. agree somewhat there are very few combinations of cabbage recipe tried so far. Loved this unique style of including cabbage in the meal.
thank you – yes I dont know why cabbage gets such a bad rap!
My husband comes from a large family and I can imagine how crazy it would get when you need to cook for that many. In India, we don’t need an occasion or a holiday to drop by and so large gatherings tend to be normal when one has a large family.
This simple noodle dish fits right into the holiday platter.
yes it is a simple side dish to just complete the table
I have eaten this once and loved it. Thanks for sharing this recipe, would definitely give it a try.
oh wow – great that you had the chance to try this dish!
Wow Mir! You sure do cook for a crowd for thanksgiving! ‘m sure it would be such a pleasure to cook for family and friends .And so nice to see someone love cabbage. I am a huge fan of cabbage but not many mike it!Indeed an underutilized vegetable! I am sure this dish can be made with the regular noodles as well.
yes – another cabbage lover like me 🙂 🙂
Very interesting recipe mir! Yes, cooking for large crowd needs so much planning! Love the simplicity of the recipe!!!
so true – in fact I just did a post with tips for party planning including a FREE download https://globalkitchentravels.com/2018/11/party-planning-for-a-crowd-free-download/
I like cabbage in the noodles but always use stir fried cabbage not the way you have used properly cooked one. I’m sure it must have tasted good with caramelized cabbage.
yes it was very tasty
I never used cabbage such as way, its really unique and interesting way to add cabbage in your diet.
I love cabbage and find it so underutilized – hope you enjoy this also
Here we are, three years later than your last post, and I have just discovered or I should say re-discovered this recipe for kapustazh that I learned 52 years ago! Right before I was to marry my young Hungarian fiancé, I lived with my Hungarian mother and father-in-law for six months. Fortunately she was a phenomenal cook and taught me how to dry pasta by draping it over the curtain rods! For a main dish, she would serve these cabbage noodles with cottage cheese blended into the mixture when the pot first came off the fire. She also used bacon grease instead of butter. Go big or go home, amiright? Thanks so much for this newly unearthed old favorite recipe! Sure brings back memories!
so happy I reminded you of this delicious recipe
Oh, yeah. Do you have a recipe for Ital Cabbage from Jamaica? I looked but didn’t find it.
PS Your website is amaaaazing!!!
I dont have it posted. but that is a basic cabbage recipe we make throughout the caribbean as it is our most utilized veg. I will definitely post it soon for you and let you know when!