Creamy Cabbage Salad

Cabbage is one of my fav vegetables because it is cheap, delicious and super good for you! It’s also hella low in calories (not that I believe in counting calories or anything like that), but since it is so low cal you can pair it with a nice creamy dressing and not feel guilty.  I haven’t had coleslaw in years because it’s the creepiest salad ever, usually it has so much mayonnaise on it that it sort of slips and slides around your plate (not appealing), but this salad is like coleslaw after a makeover.

Creamy Cabbage Salad

• 1/2 cabbage (I used green but red would probs be awesome also)
• 1/4 cup tahini
• 1/4 dijon mustard
• 1 TB miso paste
• 2 TB cashews
• sprouts (for garnish)

1. Wash and chop your cabbage into ribbon like slices
2. Mix the mustard, tahini and miso together.  Add to the cabbage and mix well.
3. Garnish with cashews and sprouts

In this recipe the tahini creates the creamy texture and flavour usually achieved with mayonnaise but minus the unholy slimyness (I’m aware that is not a proper word).

SPRING ROLLS

Oh my god guys, I am so excited, I made spring rolls! I did not think I could pull this recipe off, but I damn well did! I am really overly excited about this, per usual as food is the only thing that really makes me excited.

Party in my mouth

I was not even going to try and make spring rolls, I was going to attempt dumplings, but in the grocery store I could only find spring roll pastry and not dumpling shells, so I was like, close enough.  Now, just to clarify, I usually try to make everything at home, but one time I made beautiful dumplings with homemade shells, and they were awful, and weird and like wayyyyyy to chewy, so this time I realized I needed some store bought wrappers.

Now I looked up how to make spring rolls, and I did not like any of the recipes that I found, so I decided I would do my own thing and I really enjoyed the way it turned out!

What you need:

• one package spring roll wrappers
• coconut oil (for cooking)
• 4 small grated carrots (or 2 large)
• 1/4 cup (60 ml) sprouted mung beans (or any type of sprout)
• 1/2 (120 ml) pickled cabbage (I made my own and you can find the recipe on this blog! You can also use store bought or raw cabbage)
• 6 (approx.) bok choy leaves shredded
• 1 tsp (5ml) miso paste
• 1 Tb (15ml) tamari soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp (2.5ml) salt and pepper (please do not leave out the pepper it makes it a billion times better!)

1. Steam your grated carrot, shredded bok choy, and mung beans for 10 minutes or until softened, if you are using raw cabbage you should include it in the steaming, but if you are using pickled cabbage leave it separate.
   

   Ingredients

2. Mix the cooked vegetables with the pickled cabbage.  Add the tamari, miso, salt and pepper to the vegetables and thoroughly mix so everything is evenly distributed.
   

   mix

3. Peel apart some of your spring roll pastry.  Lay one piece on a flat surface, scoop about a one tablespoon sized amount of the filling into the middle of the wrapper.
   

   Wrapper with a scoop of filling

   

   Wrapper with folded sides

    

   Fold the sides across each other, and then fold over the end pieces creating a sealed rectangle, future spring roll.

   

   Future spring roll

4. Heat a frying pan or wok at medium heat with a small amount of coconut oil (or oil of your choice).  When the pan is hot cook the spring rolls until golden on both sides.  When you are cooking the spring rolls it is really nice the veg is already cooked, because then you only have to worry about frying the wrapper.  These are not classic spring rolls but they are 100% delicious so give them a try!
   

   Finished spring rolls!

 

Sweet, salty pickled cabbage

The newest staple of my diet is pickled cabbage, I am in love with it!

It all started because during the month of November I have been wildly unemployed, leaving me with loads of free time to experiment in the kitchen.  Loads of my invented recipes have been complete fails, that I have unhappily forced myself to eat, as I am to stubborn to waste food but some of the things I have tried this week have been awesome and addicting, I’m looking at you pickled cabbage.  I always thought making anything that involved fermenting was difficult, and required too many weird ingredients.  Last year I made pickled beets that involved lots of vinegar, and apple cider vinegar, the result was REALLY salty and kinda weird, needless to say it was never made again.  However, all you need for this amazing pickled cabbage is cabbage, and salt, pretty damn simple. 

Here is what you do:

1. Cut or grate (I had more success with the grated batch) your cabbage, an older cabbage is better for pickling.
2. Add salt to your cabbage, I used a 1/2 teaspoon (2.5 ml) for every 1/4 of the cabbage, but the best way to figure out how much salt you need is to taste test.  The cabbage should taste salty but not disgustingly salty.
3. Work the salt into the cabbage, a bit like the way you would work with dough but you want to be really forceful! Take out any built up anger you may have on the cabbage! You want to see the juice of the cabbage flowing. 
4. Once your cabbage is nice and broken down, get a metal or ceramic bowl/pot and really pack the cabbage down into the bowl using your knuckles.  Put a plate in the bowl and push it into the cabbage, place something heavy on the plate, I used a can of beans, and then cover with a towel or plastic wrap. 
5. Put the cabbage somewhere dry and warm for three days to ferment. The result is a salty and sweet, awesome cabbage; great for a topping or just for eating out the bowl (like I do as soon as it’s finished). 

Another fun thing about this is you can add other vegetables to mix up the flavours.  A common addition is carrot, but I know my next batch will have grated beet!