cabbage and onion salad
(vegan)

recipe by mb

just the recipe

what I was looking for

I wanted a simple, Asian-themed vegetable side dish.

what I made

I made the napa and red onion salad from Beyond the Great Wall (pages 86-87), with a few changes for taste and simplicity's sake.

chit-chat

I made one big mistake while making this recipe, which was simply due to my not paying close enough attention while reading the instructions. I thought this was a raw cabbage salad, and so I shredded the cabbage and sliced up the onions and tossed them together into a bowl.

But when I read the instructions I discovered that it wasn't actually a raw salad, that instead the cabbage was supposed to be a little bit wilted. So, in a panic because I had "done it wrong," I followed the instructions for how to wilt the cabbage, even though now the cabbage was mixed with the onion. So instead of having a wilted cabbage and raw onion salad I ended up with a wilted cabbage and wilted onion salad.

It wasn't the biggest deal in the world, but it surely wasn't as tasty as it would have been if the onions were raw. So instead of giving you the instructions for how I did make it, I'm going to give you the instructions for how I should have made it.

grades for my version

healthy	A	A bunch of vegetables with a little bit of seasoning.
fast	A	Very.
easy	A	Great to do while you're slaving away over something more complicated!
cheap	A	Yup.
delicious	B	Wilting the onions with the cabbage definitely detracted from the deliciousness. If it hadn't been for that it would have gotten an A.

yield

Enough to feed four people as a side dish.

equipment

    a food processor
   a large bowl
   a knife
   a small bowl

the veggies

ingredients	A+D	mb	why?
cabbage	2 cups, shredded by hand	2 cups, shredded by food processor	MUCH easier [1]
red onion	small, sliced thin	medium, sliced thin	healthier
Notes
[1]	Shredding cabbage by hand is not difficult, but cutting it into quarters and using a food processor to shred it is INFINITELY easier. I wouldn't do it any other way.

   Place the shredded cabbage in a large bowl and cover it with boiling water. Let it sit for just long enough that it is only beginning to lose its crunch (about 1-2 minutes) and then drain it thoroughly and put it back into the bowl.

   Add the onion slices and make sure the two are well stirred.

the dressing

ingredients	A+D	mb	why?
roasted sesame oil	2 teaspoons	2 teaspoons	no change
minced ginger	1 Tablespoon	1 Tablespoon	no change
rice vinegar	1 Tablespoon	1 Tablespoon	no change
salty flavoring	2 teaspoons salt	1 Tablespoon soy sauce	tastier [1]
cilantro, chopped	to taste, as garnish	---	tastier [2]
Notes
[1]	Ummmm ... is it wrong for me to want soy sauce in this instead of salt? I think not.
[2]	I had two people for dinner that night who don't like cilantro. Very sad for me.

   Mix all the above ingredients in a small bowl and then dress the cabbage and onion mixture, stirring to make sure that all of it is well coated.

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