Mexican Cabbage Slaw

The Perfect Meal Compliment

Recipe by Robin

Years ago a frugal friend turned me on to Santa Cruz’s El Palomar Taco bar, where we ate an assortment of cheap and delicious tacos in hot-off-the-presses handmade tortillas. Just as intriguing as the tacos was the garnish, a tangy cabbage slaw. I couldn’t get enough, and always asked for extra, to the surprise of the servers. Alas, it seems to have dropped off the menu in post-pandemic times. Unlike most veggies, cabbage is available year-round. So winter is a perfect time to unravel the mystery of Mexican slaw. Although any season is perfect for this slaw, since cabbage and carrots are always readily available. It's also a delicious way to use up leftover cilantro.

Colcannon with Bacon

Serve with Bacon, Ham, Canadian Bacon or Sausage

Recipe by Robin

Colcannon! I’ve never made it and wasn’t planning on it. But our weekly food shares have delivered cabbage and potatoes for weeks. I’m not keeping up cooking-wise. Plus, St. Paddy’s day is right around the corner. I’m usually way to busy to coordinate an Irish treat on this holiday, but colcannon can be as simple as the two main ingredients plus butter and a few scallions. Proportions are forgiving, depending on quantities on hand. And yes! It’s perfect comfort food for chilly winter into spring weather!

Simple Cranberry Apple Slaw

Simple and Colorful Winter Salad

Recipe adapted from Paleo Approach Cookbook

In prepping for a recent dinner party I was challenged by a recipe that took a lot of space, time, and effort: Carbonada en Zapallon. Like many holiday recipes, it requires the entire kitchen for a prolonged period of time. I discovered this simple side dish to add a fresh, seasonal crunch to an otherwise meaty, stick-to-the-ribs menu. Bonuses: only 4 ingredients plus salt and pepper, and it keeps well and can be served with leftovers.  A green salad just can’t compete.

Asian Slaw

Colorful and Healthful

Recipe by Robin

A craving for a slaw that would be a perfect foil for parchment baked salmon engulfed me. Especially since I had 1½  lbs. of salmon in the freezer, caught and flash-frozen by my work colleague’s kids in Alaska last season. One does not want such a generous and delicious gift to go to waste. I got a little carried away (inspiration knows no seasons), and included cilantro, which is decidedly not in season, though readily available in the market. A better choice would have been parsley, currently growing in my garden, or simply skipping the little green addition. The cabbage, carrots, green onions, sesame seeds, and exotic dressing will carry the dish with little reduction, unless you happen to be crazy about cilantro as I am.

Cashew Chicken Salad with Mandarin Oranges

A Salad for All Seasons

Recipe Inspired by Cooking Light

In the middle of winter, comfort foods abound. Yet, after months of hefty fare, along comes an unseasonably warm and sunny day, and we suddenly crave fresh raw veggies. This winter veggie salad is a nutritional powerhouse, good for boosting immunity during the winter months. Cabbage is high in Vitamins A, K, and B6, plus 20 flavonoids and 15 phenols. Carrots are loaded with beta carotene and antioxidants. Bean sprouts contain lots of iron, copper, and other minerals. Ginger aids digestion and warms the body from within, a good addition to a wintertime salad.

Spring Chopped Salad with Tarragon Vinaigrette

Dressed for Dinner

Recipe Inspired by Salad for Dinner

Chopped salads are frequently found on Los Angeles menus, and I can see why. Consisting of hardy fresh vegetables topped with assorted cheeses, meats, and condiments, these wilt-proof salads are perfect in hot weather. As temps top the high 80s in the Santa Cruz mountains—and we get lots of fennel and cabbage in our CSA share—it’s time to get chopping. The idea of chopped salad is that a variety of veggies are cut into a similar size and shape, then goodies like chicken, capers, olives, onion, and cheese are added. A quasi-Mediterranean invention, this salad is usually dressed with an herby vinaigrette. Sturdy ingredients make leftovers stay fresh and crunchy.

Hot Asian Slaw AKA Crack Slaw

Delicious and Nutritious

Recipe by Robin

The words “Crack Slaw” conjure up two vivid images in my mind, neither of which is appetizing. The term officially refers to the street drug crack and its addictive qualities, doubtlessly coined by someone who’s never seen the dark, vacant look in an addict’s eyes.  I’d like to reinvent this slaw as something sexy, something that we can choose to eat rather than mindlessly wolfing down, with a name that we can utter to our grandma or pastor without having to elaborate. Wouldn’t you really rather eat a Hot Asian Slaw?

Hot Red Cabbage Slaw

Bright Winter Hot Slaw

Recipe adapted from Midwest Gardener’s Cookbook

It’s the shortest day of the year, so time is precious. Are you ready for the fastest, simplest, recipe ever blogged at Seasonal Eating? How about a delicious side dish that’s bright purple-red and requires just a microwave and about 20 minutes to prepare? A recipe that’s cheap and uses few ingredients, yet provides vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, fiber, and possible protection from cancer? That requires only a knife and cutting board plus two bowls, one of which can be used for serving? Yes, friends, this recipe is almost too good to be true. And did I mention that it’s delicious?

Spicy Cabbage, Tomato, and Radish Salad

Light and Summery Salad

Recipe from The Cooking Decade

Like the Thai Napa Cabbage Chicken Salad, I have no idea where this recipe came from. Unlike the Thai Salad, it’s a magazine clipping, not scribbled in my handwriting. This is another recipe from The Cooking Decade, a looseleaf binder of family recipes given to me by my sister Chris, who says she’s in her second non-cooking decade. You didn’t hear it from me, but she’s a fabulous cook when she chooses to be, and all of the recipes from her Cooking Decade have been triple tested and family approved. Plus this particular recipe is great for using up those tomatoes that are coming in like crazy right now.

Quick and Easy Chicken Soup

To Your Health

Recipe by Robin

Summertime colds seem so counterintuitive and unfair. Staying in bed shivering under blankets while everyone else is outdoors playing in the sun, swimming with the kids, or sipping cocktails at a barbecue just doesn’t seem right. So the other day when I felt a bit under the weather, I chose to nip the virus in the bud. In addition to getting extra rest and drinking ginger tea and lemon tea, I made chicken soup.

Thai Style Napa Cabbage Chicken Salad

Summery Salad

Recipe by Robin

I have no idea where this recipe came from. Does this ever happen to you? It’s in my own writing. I found it in “The Cooking Decade,” a binder of family recipes that my older sister gave me. It’s one of the recipes that I added, and like all other Cooking Decade recipes was pre-tested and family-approved. Yet I have no recollection of making it, naming it, or writing it.

But who else would make a dressing with no oil, using simply lime juice, tamari, and garlic? Certainly not a professional chef. Doubtlessly it was created during hot weather when our CSA supplied us with plenty of Napa cabbage and we had limes on hand. On a day like today.

Sweet and Sour Braised Red Cabbage: Roedkaal

Underrated But Delicious and Healthful

Recipe by The Cooking of Scandinavia and Robin

Cabbage is an underrated vegetable here in the US. How often do we see cabbage in restaurants, or cabbage casseroles at potlucks? Sure, we see a few shreds of red cabbage in salads, but how often do we see red cabbage featured as a side dish? Most of the time, if we see it we’re eating in a German restaurant. Americans are missing out, because not only is red cabbage packed with anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer components, it also looks beautiful on the table and snuggling up to other dishes on our plates.

Unstuffed Cabbage Casserole

Slice of Un-stuffed Cabbage

Recipe Inspired by Weight Watchers and Mom

Someday I will make stuffed cabbage leaves, the delicious galumkis that my mother and grandmother used to make…sort of. I’ll make a no-beef-or-pork filling and no-Campbell’s-tomato-soup sauce. The family recipe was never written down, so this is a project for when time, patience, and creativity are simultaneously expanded. In the meantime, working on my cooking goal of exploring my Polish cooking roots, I found a Weight Watchers stuffed cabbage casserole, and set out to make a no-beef, more easily prepared version.

Cider Braised Cabbage and Apples

Braised Kapusta & Apples in Cider

Adapted from Bon Appetit Recipe

In the beginning of the 2011 CSA season, I set a goal of exploring my Polish roots through cooking. Kapusta (cabbage) is a Polish staple food, and I know that my ancestors cooked kapusta and onions with caraway seeds. The triple apple addition in this recipe (apples, cider, and vinegar) compliments the cabbage by adding sweetness, texture, and a bit of tartness.

Baked Cabbage

Baked Cabbage Plated

Recipe from The Illustrated Food & Cooking of Poland, Russia & Eastern Europe

As I said in my New (fruit & veggie) Year post, I plan to explore my Polish heritage in my cooking this year. This is the first recipe I've tried from The Illustrated Food & Cooking of Poland, Russia & Eastern Europe, and it's incredibly delicious. The cookbook is divided into three regions, and this recipe is from the Romanian, Bulgarian, and East Adriatic region. However, the taste reminds me of my grandmother's traditional Polish Galumkis (stuffed cabbage leaves)--except that this is a vegan recipe that doesn't require the fuss and long preparation time that Galumkis do.  Plus, this recipe is extremely economical. What's not to like? This would be a great potluck dish: attractively presented, tasty, and inexpensive. Corning makes a baking dish with insulated carrying case that will keep it warm for hours.

Quick Asia-Inspired Salad

Quick, Easy, Healthful Salad

Recipe by Robin

During the process of cleaning out my deceased father's house, preparing simple and healthful recipes is best practice. I invented this recipe during another busy and stressful time when we had few fresh vegetables. Keeping some water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, mandarin oranges, canned pineapple, canned tomatoes, and sesame seeds on hand expands your food possibilities when time is short. And we love the light Newman's Own Lighten Up salad dressings: the taste, the low calories, and Newman's business practice of donating 100% of royalties and after-tax profits to charity. You may cut this recipe in half, and use the extra half-can of water chestnuts in a stir-fry with other veggies.

Marge's Coleslaw

Much Like Mom Used to Make

Recipe by Robin, inspired by Mom

In the early days of blenders, my mother filled her “Osterizer Container” with cabbage, carrots, and onions suspended in water. She pulsed each veggie into shreds, drained off the water, then mixed them all with mayonnaise, cider vinegar, salt, and pepper to make coleslaw. I did this a few times too, till I noticed that the green and orange water looked too nutrient-rich to waste. And so it was back to chopping and shredding, which I like because it’s quieter, and more eco-friendly.

Sweet & Sour Herbed Carrots & Cabbage

Sweet & Sour Carrots & Cabbage

Recipe by Robin

We’ve heard that necessity is the mother of invention, and this is especially true for chefs who cook with seasonal ingredients. I invented this recipe one winter with leftover purple cabbage and carrots, and used it again for our veggies this week. I like the way the purple cabbage intensifies the color of orange carrots, but you could substitute red or yellow carrots or green cabbage. The purple cabbage makes this a prettier dish than green cabbage, though.