A few summers ago, I went cole slaw crazy. I thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. I still love it and would be eating it today if it weren’t for all that mayonnaise that’s called for in many of the recipes. I like mayonnaise and all, but not the amount that’s included in traditional cole slaw. That’s why Laura and I began our hunt for a new and healthier version.
The Recipe
Today’s recipe takes cole slaw up a notch and turns it into a really great tasting cabbage salad. With the inclusion of apple, fennel and a sweet and sour vinaigrette, I think it may be more than just a substitution. It stands alone.
This recipe is easy to prepare. It only takes a few minutes of prep and a bit of mixing and combining. Once completed, you’ll be left with a tasty salad that you can add to a more traditional lettuce salad, as a topping on a sandwich or something you can enjoy in a bowl by itself. Personally, we added it to our regular nightly salad. We used it as a topper and it worked out very well.
Ingredients
Serves: 6 to 8
1/2 Head Green Cabbage, Shredded
2 Granny Smith (or your choice) Apples, Cored and Cut into 1/4 Pieces
1 Fennel Bulb, Halved, Cored and Sliced Thin
Regular Table Salt
Ground Black Pepper
1/2 Red Onion, Chopped Fine
2 Tablespoons Rice Vinegar
1 Tablespoon Honey
1 Teaspoon Dried Tarragon
1 Teaspoon Dijon Mustard
2 Tablespoons Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
Step-by-Step Instructions
I’d like to thank America’s Test Kitchen for this recipe. I pulled it out of their most excellent resource that’s titled The Complete Vegetarian Cookbook and I must say, it’s a good one. Thanks again.
Add Ingredients to Large Bowl
I suggest you start off with a really large bowl. That will give you the room to mix everything up later on. After shredding the cabbage, I threw it into the biggest bowl we have.
Next up, I diced the apples and sliced the fennel. I added those ingredients to the bowl as well.
Finally, I added a few pinches of salt and a few pinches of pepper to the bowl and combined everything well.
Prepare the Vinaigrette
In a medium sized bowl, add the red onion, rice vinegar, honey, tarragon, mustard and extra-virgin olive oil. You can also add a few more pinches of salt and pepper. Mix well.
Mix Everything Together
Next, add the vinaigrette to the cabbage, apple and fennel that are in the large bowl. Combine all the ingredients until every last bit of them area coated with the vinaigrette.
The Final Salad
That’s all there is to it. Again, you can serve this any way you wish. If there aren’t enough people to eat all the salad at once, you can store it in the refrigerator. It actually tastes better if it sits for a while. The flavors have a chance to meld into one another. Enjoy!
Leave a Reply