Coleslaw Recipes for Every Occasion

Enlarge Image Image Gallery Serve pork with a Warm Red Cabbage Slaw on the side. Lori Dunn

Article Tools

Image Gallery

Print

E-mail

Comments

RSS

To the pantheon of vegetables that are entirely different experiences when consumed fresh from the garden, add the lowly, humble cabbage. If you’ve never grown it or tasted it when the grower has cut it fresh just that morning, someone needs to lay down the slaw.

When it’s freshly cut, standard green cabbage is sweet, fragrant, crunchy, with no sulphurous aroma or undertaste. Consume it once, and you’re ruined for coleslaw that’s made in a factory somewhere and shipped in five-gallon buckets to delis and barbecue joints across the country.

But the resurgence of home gardening is bringing a whole realm of cole crops to the table, and we’re not just talking red cabbage. We’re talking late flat Dutch. Savoy, with its fancy crinkled leaves. Napa. Radicchio. And a whole world of Asian cabbages, from Chinese cabbage to all the choys – bok, pak and the tiny “Toy Choi.” Asian greens adapt easily to short growing seasons and small spaces. Why be limited to cabbage? Try broccoslaw, made from peeled broccoli stalks, or chop broccoli raab buds into a standard creamy cabbage slaw.

The basic principles of a slaw are universal: raw vegetables (except for the cooked German slaws); a dressing that is a balance of sweet and sour; and other ingredients that add flavor, color or crunch. Toasted nuts, dried fruits, seeds or sprouts can be added to slaws; the key is to assess their ability to stand up to the dressing. For example, the roasted soybeans that add crunch and protein to an Asian slaw can get soggy, so they’re added at the last minute, just before serving. Pine nuts, on the other hand, are oily enough that they can go right into the mix from the beginning.

Tender Asian greens wilt quickly in a vinegar dressing, so put it on just early enough to get the whole concoction chilled. And salt helps vegetables release water, so don’t salt a raw slaw until you get it to the table.

Try different bases for your creamy slaw dressing – yogurt and dill, for example, instead of mayonnaise. Nut and seed oils bring different flavors to a vinegar-based slaw, and so do different vinegars. Experiment with white wine, a dash of sherry vinegar or balsamic.

Fresh herbs such as thyme or tarragon bring subtle, intriguing accents to a basic creamy slaw; just be cautious with the more pungent ones, such as garlic chives.

RSS | Comments | E-mail | Print