This rough-chopped, peppery coleslaw tastes nothing like deli versions.
I’m a fan of short-cuts, but sometimes taste trumps convenience: For the freshest tasting, nicest textured slaw, don’t use a food processor to grate your cabbage and carrots.
Machine grating makes the ingredients uniformly mushy and speeds their quick devolution to slime. It takes exactly three minutes longer to hand-chop the cabbage and hand-grate the carrot.
It’s well worth the tiny extra effort to make…
Old-Fashioned Coleslaw
½ head of cabbage, chopped
1 carrot, peeled and grated
½ cup mayonnaise
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
1-2 tablespoons sugar
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
- Peel away old outer leaves from cabbage. Chop medium fine, see photos below.
- Hand grate carrot, see photo below.
- In a medium bowl, mix cabbage and carrot.
- In a smaller bowl, blend mayonnaise and rest of ingredients.
- Pour mayonnaise mix over cabbage and carrots, stirring to incorporate.
Serves 6.
Karen says
Hi Lorraine,
I love cold slaw. It’s kind of a substitute for Kim Chee – pickled Napa cabbage – staple dish from Korea. Cold slaw goes with everything. One ingredient I sometimes add to give it a little kick is horse radish sauce or pepper flakes. You can take a girl out of Korea but can’t take Korea out of a girl when it comes to food. 🙂
admin says
Hi Karen:
Mmmm…I love spicy heat in just about any food. I’ll try your variation–thanks!
Juliet Lacy says
I love homemade coleslaw! One teaspoon of Dijon mustard and about 1/3 cup crushed pineapple makes that perfect balance between sweet and sour. Yum!
Lorraine Thompson says
@Juliet: Dijon or maybe even grainy mustard would make a tasty addition indeed.