Recipe Stash Busting: An Easy Asian Slaw

Since I started this autoimmune diet I’ve been feeding the rest of the family from our well-stocked freezer, which means I’ve been doing precious little cooking for their meals, which means I haven’t been as diligent about my stash-busting. But the one thing you can’t freeze for dinner? Salad. And since I can’t freeze salad it means that I’m making one practically every night (except for when I can talk the Sweet Pea into making it). It was only natural that I should turn to my stash-busting efforts to the stack of salad recipes in my file.

My salad file was quite full. Not because I have an abnormal fondness for salad, nor because I don’t like salad and never get around to making them. No, the folder is full because I never approach the nightly bowl of raw veg with any sort of intention. It is always a veggie-drawer-clean-out affair tossed together with whatever scraps I find rolling around in the fridge. I have to say it was refreshing to approach this part of dinner with a plan.

As I sifted through the file, I was able to discard a dozen or so recipes that either used ingredients we no longer eat (like tofu) or featured items that I’d long since lost interest in (like chestnuts). I set aside the salad recipes that called for ingredients that would be much tastier coming from the garden in summer (tomatoes, peaches, green beans, strawberries–Oh! Will winter never end?!) And I had it narrowed down to a couple of bean salads and this slaw. I had a chicken curry on the menu for dinner, and Asian slaw sounded like the perfect pairing.

My food processor made quick work of shredding up the cabbage and carrots (I didn’t have a bag of coleslaw mix, but I did have a cabbage and some carrots, so I shredded my own). The dressing took about five minutes to mix together. I tossed some chow mein noodles on top, because they’ve been languishing in the cupboard (and because they make the kiddos go “Ooooooooh!”)

As I set the salad on the table, I was thinking that it was going to be plenty for dinner that night and lunch the next day. When I returned to the table with my own dinner, the salad was half gone and the Sweetie Pie was helping himself to another bowlful.

Me: Wow! Seconds?!
Him: Nope. Thirds.
Sweet Pea: Can I have another bowl?
Bean: Yeah, me too?
Peanut: Hey! Meee!!

Only the Pickle turned up his nose. But once he actually got around to taking a bite, he admitted that it was actually “Bene” and not “Pessime” like he’d expected. (Nerdy homeschooler tidbit: Our dinner table ratings come from one of the Sweet Pea’s early Latin lessons where she learned the words for horrible, good, and great….and then taught them to all the other kiddos.)

So with the Sweetie Pie declaring that it “tastes like Pad Thai salad” and with the kiddos all requesting thirds on raw cabbage, I decided that we had found this week’s stash-busting winner. I adapted the original recipe just slightly to be less spicy. If you want more heat, feel free to kick up the chili sauce.