Bittersweet Coleslaw

A welcome addition to any barbecue or potluck, this dish is simple to make, yet provides a complex balance of flavors presented in a nutritious serving of dietary fiber. It’s fruity and vegetal, crunchy and creamy. Grapefruit and radicchio dial up the bitter notes of the cabbage, while Pink Lady Apple and Sugar Snap Peas magnify its sweetness. The onion offers its piquancy, and the Meyer Lemon in the dressing balances it all with a mildly tart finish. Just chop everything up and mix together.

Ingredients:

½ head Red Cabbage, or whole small cabbage, thinly sliced, thinly sliced

¼ head or one small Green Cabbage for color

1 medium or 2 small head/s Radicchio, thinly sliced

1 White Onion, diced (Green Onion works as well)

1 large or 2 medium Pink Lady Apple/s

3 handfuls Sugar Snap Peas, cut crosswise

1 Large or 2 medium Grapefruit/s, chopped

Dressing:

1 dollop Primal Kitchen Avocado Oil Mayonnaise

1 dollop Natural Value Dijon Mustard

Thai Kitchen Roasted Red Chili Paste (optional)

Juice from 2 Meyer Lemons

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Slice the cabbage and radicchio and add them to the bowl. Remember that the cabbage will shrink slightly when it is salted and mixed later, as the cell walls start to break down.

Dice and add the onion

Chop and add the apple/s

Cut and add Sugar Snap Peas. To use as much of the pod as possible, hold each one by the stem while cutting it into pieces.

Cut and add the grapefruit. I find it easiest to quarter the grapefruit and peel the quarters, then cut them crosswise. You can take out the seeds after quartering them. Make sure to use as much of the juice as possible to help make the dressing fruity and delicious.

Once all the dry ingredients are in the bowl, add a couple pinches of salt and some pepper

Spoon up a dollop of mayonnaise and add it. I like the Primal Kitchen Avocado Oil mayonnaise because it has only 5 ingredients and is unsweetened. It does contain eggs, so use a different mayo for a vegan version.

Add mustard. I like a smooth mustard like Natural Value Dijon, but any mustard will work.

Add Thai Kitchen Roasted Red Chili Paste (optional). I like to add a hint of spice to almost everything. This chili paste does also contain sugar as well as fish sauce and anchovy extract, so use a different chili ingredient for a vegetarian/vegan or paleo/keto version.

Add juice from 2 Meyer lemons. I find the easiest way to do this is to halve and fork the lemon, using a strainer to catch the seeds and twisting the lemon half on the fork to get all the juice.

Mix all ingredients thoroughly.

As with any time you’re preparing food, taste and adjust, taste and adjust, taste and adjust!

Note: if you have an organic rose garden, adding rose petals, sliced like the cabbage and radicchio, will make this slaw more floral, turning up the fragrance we got from the citrus and adding even more color to what the red cabbage gave to the mayo.