savoy slaw

Last weekend I had my first day off since I arrived back in Vancouver. The course I was supposed to be teaching on Saturday's didn't end up running, which, happily, freed me up to head over to the Vancouver Farmer's Market Winter Market. It was the first time I'd seen the market running in their new, larger location, and I was pretty impressed. As I expected, the winter market boasted a higher ratio of prepared foods than the summer and fall markets normally do, but there was still a fair amount of cold weather produce. I picked up some of my favourite cheese (a post on that coming soon!), some dill pesto,  and a loaf of 100 mile bread (mmm, blueberries and hazelnuts!) from A Bread Affair (which, combined with some local SPCA certified eggs, made a very tasty100 mile French toast for my Sunday morning breakfast). After a lively conversation with a couple of farmers about food security and the concept of winter markets in a northern climate, a round of the produce stands saw me heading away from the market with a bag full of beets, carrots, winter squash, shallots, onions, carrots, apples, and a handsome head of savoy cabbage.

You'd think that would have been the end of my adventures at the Farmer's Market, but the universe had other plans for me. My next task was to pick up my bike, which, after having run over a gigantic nail on my ride home from school earlier in the week, was in the shop for a little TLC. In the interest of taking care of two chores in one outing, I had taken my Dad's van to the market, and was going to swing by the bike shop and throw my bike in the back of the van on my way home. When I got back to the van after getting my marketing done, it wouldn't start. An attempt at a jump start, a BCAA call, and three hours of my life later, I learned that if you lock the van electronically and then unlock it with the key, the starter is disabled. Lesson learned. There are worse things than having to spend 3 extra hours at the Farmer's Market, though, and I enjoyed a very yummy apple and ricotta crepe while I was waiting.

Coleslaw is one of those things that I hated as a kid and am just now starting to get on board with. I'm generally not a fan of salad dressings, and I find that coleslaw is often drastically over-dressed for my tastes, and wilted. But I had this cabbage, see, and apples and carrots sitting beside it, and the ingredients were screaming at me to build a slaw. I also had an excess of miso paste; my friend Alice brought me a tub of organic miso paste her son had left behind after the holidays, and that rounded out the miso collection in our fridge to no less than four different types. Over at 101 Cookbooks, Heidi has a great recipe for a Chopped Miso Salad that I've made before, and while it certainly served as inspiration for this slaw, it wasn't exactly what I wanted. I took some of the components away from her recipe, changed the miso dressing around, and added some more coleslaw-ish ingredients. The end result was an anything but classic but oh-so-delish version of coleslaw. I hope you'll give it a whirl.

Also, a quick shout out to my soon to be brother in law, Andy, who gave me the 50mm lens that I shot these pictures with. Once again, a huge learning curve, but I think there were a few good ones in the bunch. Thanks, Andy! Now, on to the recipe . . .

 

Savoy Slaw with Miso Dressing:

Inspired by 101 Cookbooks

Because I'm not a huge fan of salad dressings, I left the dressing off of the slaw and dressed it as I went. Because it was un-dressed, it lasted well in the fridge for most of the week. I made it on a Tuesday and took the last of it to an impromptu pot-luck dinner on Friday of the same week. The slaw is great on it's own, and the addition of tofu makes it a stand alone meal. I also loved it with some spinach tossed in at the last second. If you're not going to serve it right away, sprinkle a little lemon juice or rice vinegar over the shredded apple to slow down the enzymatic browning.

 

Slaw:

½ medium savoy cabbage, shredded

4 shallots, thinly sliced (about 1 ½ cups)

½ small red onion, finely diced (about ⅓ cup)

1 large carrot, peeled and grated

1 large apple, peeled and grated

½ block extra firm tofu, cubed (175g)

 

Heat 2 tablespoon of olive oil in a skillet over medium heat, add shallots, and cook until caramelized. Set the shallots aside to cool, and in the same pan, toast the cubed tofu until nicely browned. Shred the cabbage, carrots, and apple. Squeeze excess liquid out of the apple and sprinkle a little lemon juice or rice vinegar in, if you're not going to serve the slaw immediately. Toss cabbage, apple, carrot, shallots, onion, and tofu together in a large bowl. Dress and serve immediately, or reserve the dressing on the side.

 

Miso Dressing:

2 tablespoon miso paste

2 tablespoon nutritional yeast

¼ cup rice wine vinegar

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon sesame oil

salt and pepper to taste

 

Whisk all dressing ingredients together except for the salt and pepper. Taste, and season. Toss with salad, or keep refrigerated in an air tight container for up to a week.

 

All text and photos © The Muffin Myth 2011