Another Asian-style slaw

I have an admission to make here: I’m not a great fan of white (or pale green) cabbage. It comes from a year of student-life with little money, and cabbage was the one green vegetable we could easily afford. I became a master of ways to cook cabbage so it tasted less like cabbage. Even so, it still was cabbage. Decades later, I still prefer to avoid cabbage.

Coleslaw is the only way I really enjoy cabbage these days. I’ve been making these other coleslaws for quite some time, but they’ve been replaced with this idea from the Paddington Foodie for an even more Asian-style coleslaw than I’d made before.

Asian-style coleslaw: stopped with crunch peanuts, mung beans and oh-so-fragrant coriander

It’s now become our all-time favourite coleslaw since first trying it late last year, especially for summer lunches and packed lunches for work.I love the crunch of the bean sprouts and peanuts, the tang of the vinegar and fish oil, and the sweetness of the red cabbage (I can’t believe I even had love, sweetness and cabbage in the same sentence!).

Soooooo, Fiesta Friday friends, what do you think? I know this is Easter, and it’s not chocolate or hot cross buns (both of which have more to do with eating than with either Jesus or Passover), but someone has to break in with something refreshingly light and healthy … don’t they?

Asian-style coleslaw

• Servings: 4-6
• Time: 30 minutes
• Difficulty: easy
• Print

Ingredients

• ¼ of a Chinese cabbage (or any white cabbage)
• ¼ of small red cabbage
• 2 carrots
• 3 scallions (spring onions)
• 100 grams of snow peas
•  long red chilli, sliced on the diagonal into long thin strips
• ½ long red chilli
• 1 cup of mint leaves
• 2 tablespoons of peanuts, toasted and roughly chopped
• 1 tablespoon each of olive oil, rice wine vinegar, and fish sauce
• juice and finely grated zest of 1 lime
• 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
• 100 grams of mung bean sprouts
• 1 cup of coriander leaves

Directions

1. Preparation time: shred the cabbages and grate the carrots. Slice the scallions, chillis and snow peas on the diagonal into long, thin strips. Chop (or tear) the mint leaves. Dry roast the peanuts in a heavy-duty frying pan until they’re fragrant.
2. Mixing time: In a large bowl, toss together almost everything you’ve just chopped, sliced, torn and toasted. Save half the peanuts for later.
3. Make the dressing: Mix together the lime zest and juice, oil, rice wine vinegar,fish sauce, and garlic. You can shake it all together in a jar if you want. Have a taste and a little of anytning you think you need to end up with a perfectly balanced sweet, sour and salty sauce.
4. Put it all together: Pour the dressing over the salad ingredients. Top with the rest of the toasted peanuts, mung bean sprouts and coriander leaves.

Notes

We cut down the amount of fish sauce from the original, which meant we could take out the sugar.

Source: Adapted ever-so-slightly from The Paddington Foodie’s Asian Slaw (Eat, Fast and Live Longer. A 5-2 Diet Meal Idea Under 200 Calories. Asian Slaw.) You can also find all the calorie counts for the ingredients.

Asian-style coleslaw