Memorial Day at the start of this week marked the unofficial start of Summer 2022. Our family has already taken a long trip to the UK earlier this year to visit family, so we're staying close to home this summer. My daughter and I drew up a summer bucket list to get us excited for the two months ahead. It includes some activities at home (make pickles, learn embroidery, make ice cream...), some outdoor things (go on a walking tour, go to a water park, go tubing...), and many others miscellaneous fun things (try a new cuisine, volunteer with animals, go thrifting...).
Our summer got off to a great start with a short visit by my sister and nephew. Over 4 short days, we went to the botanical garden, walked to a bakery for fresh croissants, went to a trampoline park and a board game cafe, watched movies and read books. We crossed off two bucket list items (Have a picnic and Try a new ice cream place) yesterday by going to a lake beach for a swim followed by a lakeside picnic with pesto-mozzarella and chutney-cucumber-tomato sandwiches, chips, strawberries and lemonade, and then driving to a new-to-us ice cream place to try Mexican ice cream flavors.
For a potluck pool party on Memorial Day, I brought chana masala wraps and this colorful, refreshing Indian-style coleslaw. Really, it is a typical Maharashtrian kobichi koshimbir. It is a vegan and gluten-free recipe, and holds well in the fridge for 3 days or so, which is good because the quantities below make a big batch! This light recipe is a nice change from the more typical mayo-heavy slaws.
The slaw itself has two types of cabbage, and carrots. Onion and cilantro add a bite of fresh flavor and color. Then there is a savory tempering, and a dressing of crushed peanuts for texture, and salt, sugar (I actually used some pickle juice from a jar of sweet and spicy pickled jalapeños), and tang from lemon juice (lime juice would also work here.) A true medley of flavors in a simple homely salad.
If you want to make it even easier, skip the tempering and just stir in a spoon or two of prepared Dijon mustard instead.
I used a food processor and that did much of the heavy lifting- shredding disc for the red cabbage and carrots, and slicing disc for the green cabbage. The rest of the prep came together in minutes. I can see myself making this slaw many times this summer.
Indian-style Coleslaw
- Half of a medium head of red cabbage, shredded
- Half of a medium head of green cabbage, shredded
- 1-2 carrots, shredded
- 1/4 red onion, thinly sliced
- Cilantro, minced
- Tempering
- Oil
- Mustard seeds
- Curry leaves, thinly sliced
- Asafetida
- Dressing
- Crushed roasted peanuts
- Lemon juice
- Salt
- Sugar
Mix the prepped veggies together in a big bowl. Heat the oil and make the tempering. Pour it into the bowl. Season with dressing ingredients. Toss everything together and refrigerate.
Cabbage is one of the most inexpensive and accessible vegetables in the supermarket. I love that it holds in the crisper for a week or three. Other cabbage recipes on One Hot Stove:
Self-saucing cabbage curry- a flavorful stir-fry
Zunka- a typical Maharashtrian dish of cabbage and besan
Cabbage pachadi- a salad with a yogurt dressing
What are your plans for the summer?
Yum! I love cabbage and this slaw looks great. I have an enormous green cabbage that has been stoically enduring several weeks in my fridge and this looks like the perfect recipe to make a dent in it :)
ReplyDeleteThat's one of the things I love about cabbages, they sit around patiently until you can use them!
DeleteFantastic! Nupur I have been thinking of you because it's through one of your posts that I learnt about "Panchayat" and because it came with your recommendation we watched and enjoyed it. We binge watched all episodes of season 2.
ReplyDeleteHello, dear Shubha! Oh, is there a new season of Panchayat?? I'll have to watch that :)
DeleteSounds like you are enjoying some holidays with lots of activities and good food! Coleslaw is such a great summer dish. I like to keep cabbage and carrot in the fridge and find they keep well for coleslaw when I need some extra veg. It is interesting the price of iceberg lettuce is going up in Australia and I have read about people substituting cabbage for iceberg lettuce
ReplyDeleteHi Johanna, it really is a great season despite the sometimes-oppressive heat. Cabbage and carrots are remarkable in how well they hold in the fridge, and how versatile they are- good for Indian dishes, Mexican slaw, Asian stir-fries and to bulk up noodles. I often use shredded cabbage as a sub for lettuce- simply because I always have it on hand unlike lettuce which has a pretty short crisper-life.
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