My Favourite way to salad, for sure, and this video is designed to get you slaw-ing all year long: it’s a great way to use up small amounts of veg, ones that are often candidates for sticking around in your fridge for ages (massive cabbages, carrots, onions). But more than that - there is so much you can do in terms of combining veggies, nuts, seeds, dressings, herbs - the possibilities are endless.
Check out the video for a set of slaw building blocks, based broadly on the categories of creamy and vinegary. We make four examples: a simple apple cider vinegar slaw, a classic creamy slaw, a rice vinegar slaw, and an all singing all dancing slaw with a lime, ginger and peanut dressing, with fresh coriander and chilli.
My top tips for making slaw:
My favourite creamy slaw dressing is mayo (homemade if you want or decent shop bought) and buttermilk. Maybe a bit of mustard or chilli crisp. Aquafaba makes a great emulsion for slaw too. And don’t forget tahini/seed/nut butters can make creamy dressings as well.
When making a vinegar based slaw, you have so many options for acidity: all the vinegars and citrus! Just consider the meal/purpose/ingredients and you’ll be able to match an acditiy-bringer to your vibe.
Toasted nuts and seeds, fresh picked herbs, fresh and dried spices can all add a bit of excitement and texture to your slaws.
Carrots classically bring sweetness to a slaw, but you an use other ingredients, or use the dressing to compensate for the lack of a sweet vegetable (honey, maple syrup, brown sugar even)
Balance your composition in terms of veggie ratios - use more of the inert ones, and less of the very sweet / peppery ones
Balance your dressing within the bowl and vs. what you are eating the slaw with
Shred don’t grate your veggies so they keep their texture better (if you don’t have a mandolin, now is the time. game changer if you wanna eat more veggies…)
Dress your slaw last minute so it doesn’t get soggy and watery. For prepping ahead, you can shred veg and keep in the fridge undressed, and dress as you go. You can make dressing in keep that separately, but you could also dress on the day and then have as much variety as your imagination can muster!
I tend to dress in the bowl - less washing up and as long as you don’t slosh loads of dressing ingredients in and mix and taste often, it works out fine. Even if you mix the dressing separately you will always have to taste and adjust in the bowl, so I’m just skipping the middle-person.
Veggie suggestions (by no means exahustive): Cabbages all year round (check what’s seasonal!), carrots, celery/celeriac, kohlrabi, daikon, apple, onions/spring onions, fennel, charred corn, radishes, beetroot, mango
