I love a good cole slaw. Rich? Not so much. So, when he said that corned beef sounded good for New Year’s Day – meaning, of course, corned beef and cabbage – I figured it the perfect opportunity to try out this new recipe I’d come across. I mean, c’mon, who would want to nibble on a bunch of boiled cabbage at an open house buffet? And besides, even if Rich doesn’t like cole slaw, there’d be enough other folk around to help me eat it 😉 As it turned out, Rich likes this cole slaw!
The recipe, from Paula Deen, is called ‘The Lady’s Cole Slaw’ – and I changed remarkably little (for me) when I made it – salad vinegar in place of white, red and green bell pepper, and celery seed in place of lemon-pepper.
INGREDIENTS
Dressing:
•1 cup mayonnaise
•2 tbsp salad vinegar
•1 tsp seasoned salt
•1/2 tsp black pepper – I use ground Tellicherry from The Spice House
•4 tbsp sugar
•1/2 tsp celery seed
Salad:
•1/2 green bell pepper, chopped
•1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
•1 large carrot, chopped
•1/4 cup frsh parsley, chopped
•1 head cabbage, divided in half
First, the dressing.
Whisk the mayonnaise and vinegar together with the seasonings and set aside – I made mine the night before and stashed it in a covered container in the fridge.
Note: you can do this whole thing the night before; just store the veggies separate from the dressing in the fridge and stir together at least an hour before you plan to serve. The salad would easily keep overnight, but I find the later I dress it, the longer I can save leftovers.
Now for the salad.
Slice half of the cabbage thinly with a knife (see the image above) and add to a bowl.
Carefully process the peppers, green onion, carrot, and parsley in your food processor fitted with the metal blade – just pulse it to finely chop – you don’t want a mush. Turn out into the bowl with the sliced cabbage.
Coarsely chop the remaining half head of cabbage, run through the food processor, and again, carefully pulse to finely chop – if you go too far, you have raw cabbage soup. Add this to the veggies and sliced cabbage in the bowl and toss to combine.
At this point, you can add the dressing to the veggies, chill for an hour, and serve – OR – cover the veggies and stash next to the dressing in the fridge overnight.
Served cold – folk really liked this New Year’s Day – on top of the corned beef in sammiches, or as a side salad.
I’ve been really enjoying the leftovers – and even Rich had some the next day (!) – high praise from him for just about any salad.
Now, if only there’d been hush puppies…