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Seasonal Slaw

While wandering around the Roanoke Historic Market, I happened upon Tim from Rolling Meadows Farms selling Daikon radishes he had picked the day before. Local radishes grown without pesticides were certainly appealing.

He told me that these were the smaller, spring version. I took some home and decided that their natural slight spiciness and crunch would lend itself well to a cole slaw. Back to the market I went the next day and bought North Carolina-grown green cabbage from Sumdat Farms.

I decided to make a delicate cole slaw where the light flavor of the radish and cabbage could shine rather than be drenched in lots of spices and sauces. While we are using fresh ginger and some red pepper flakes, we are not using so much as to overwhelm the two main raw vegetable ingredients.

What you need:
2 daikon radishes peeled and finely chopped (1 1/2 cups loosely packed)
3/4 small head of green cabbage, shredded (4 cups)
2 tsp fresh ginger, peeled and grated
1 TB rice vinegar
2 TB reduced sodium soy sauce
2 TB sesame oil
2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

What you do:
While you are prepping the cabbage and ginger, be sure to either drain or wring the water out of the daikon. You will wind up with excess water in your finished slaw if not, but it won't hurt anything. After your vegetables are prepped, combine them in a large bowl with the soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar, red pepper flakes and rice vinegar. Serve immediately.
If you buy a bunch of daikon, you will have two or three extras after using two for the slaw. I peeled and chopped my extra daikon. They can be tossed into a salad, a stir fry or a wrap. I put some in a wrap with some other raw veggies, tofurky, mustard and Sriracha (hot chili sauce) and my husband loved it.
(serves 6 as a side dish)

The Veggie Chef offers recipes for vegetarians. Andrea Mattioni-Willis is a vegetarian herself and she loves to cook. She frequently experiments with new recipes and will share her findings with all of you.