Dry Coleslaw Recipe
Dry Coleslaw Recipe
I can’t believe a month has passed, Christmas is over, and so is January.
I blinked and they were just gone. Must be the downside to getting older. Time flies.
When all the other food bloggers are busy posting food for Australia day and ramping up for mother’s day and Easter, I am just over here thinking, I have so much work on and I am going to be out on the building site and the garden needs a lot of attention and its jam making time. So all I can think of is food that is easy and keeps.
In walks the door to the rescue dry-slaw. So what is dry-slaw you ask? Just coleslaw without the dressing. Dry-slaw keeps in the fridge for a good week. I make a big batch up and then take out what I need and at the dressing just before serving.
You can use a mayonnaise or a vinaigrette. These are my favourites.
I take this out on the building site and add the in the dressing at morning tea time, ready for lunch. No soggy veggies, all still bright and crisp. Sometimes I take mayo with us or an oil based dressing.
You can make coleslaw with a food processor, or just a knife, or mandolin or a thermal mixer like a Thermomix.
If you are using a machine to make it, cut everything up into smallish pieces and the same size. That way they will process the same rate and not overwork the machine.
Now I own a Thermomix and I have been to many a Thermomix demonstrations, even demonstrations by Thermomix trainers and I can tell I have eaten some disgusting coleslaws. And I have watched people at these demo’s screw up their faces when they tasted it. It was nothing more than over processed crap. And you certainly could not keep until the next day. It just turned into a wet sodden waste of food.
The best way with these machines is cut everything to small and the same size, so they all process at the same rate. Do small batches at a time. And DON’T keep pulsing. A machine is just a faster way to ruin things.
Sometimes you will get a lump that just won’t chopped up, stop and take out the lump and don’t keep pulsing till its all chopped, because everything else will be all chopped up even more, then you have mush.
When using a food processor, process one vegetable at a time, empty bowl and then do the next.
Place al vegetables into a bowl and mix with clean hands and then containerize and put into the fridge. Take out what is needed per meal and then add in desired dressing and flavourings.
I personally like to use my food processor over the Thermomix or mandolin. And if I don’t use the food processor I just use a good sharp knife.
Coleslaw is a really good budget-friendly salad. Cheap to make and just plain tasty. And you can shake it up with red onions instead of brown, red cabbage instead or white cabbage. And in a capsicum. Or a bit of celery.
And this dry is just perfect when busy, so why not put is on the table this Australia day.
- 350grams (12 oz) green cabbage
- 350grams (12 oz) red cabbage
- 125 grams (4.4 oz) carrots
- 150 grams (5.29 oz) onion, red or brown
- 165 grams (5.82oz) capsicum, red or green
- 100 grams (3.52 oz) celery
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup your favourite dressing (optional)
- Finely slice the cabbages, onion, celery and capsicum. Grate the carrots.
- Place in all ingredients into bowl and mix with hands to combine.
If you are travelling with your salad or eating the next day, leave dry.
I have kept this salad very successfully for a week in its dry state and only add the dressing just before eating.
My very old food processor
Close up of the two blades I use.
Finely slice the cabbage
finely slice the cabbage and capsicum
finely slice the onion and celery
swap out blades to the grating blade and grate the carrot
put all into a bowl and combine
