Summer Slaw with Peanut Dressing by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

Ingredients

1/2 pointed summer cabbage such as hispi/sweetheart (about 200 g)
1 medium red pepper
2 small-medium carrots (about 150g in total)
50g raisins
A small handful of coriander leaves

Peanut Topping:

75g raw peanuts, coarsely chopped
1 Tbs sesame seeds
2 Tbs Tamari
1 tsp sugar

Dressing:

1 1/2 Tbs no-sugar-added peanut butter (crunchy or smooth)
Juice of 1/2 large lime
2 tsp toasted sesame oil
2 tsp Tamari
2 tsp rice vinegar (or you can use cider vinegar)
2 tsp sugar
A scrap of garlic (about 1/4 clove), finely grated
1 tsp freshly grated ginger

Method

First make the peanut topping. Put the chopped peanuts into a medium non-stick pan and toast them gently over a moderate heat, tossing often, until they start to turn golden. Add the sesame seeds and tamari and continue to cook for a couple of minutes. Use a spatula to stir the nutty, seedy mix with the tamari as it reduces and thickens. Stop cooking when the tamari is reduced to a sticky coating on the nuts. Take off the heat and stir in the sugar, then set aside to cool.

To make the dressing, put the peanut butter into a large bowl, add the lime juice and whisk to combine. Now whisk in the other ingredients, one by one, until you have a nicely amalgamated dressing.

Cut the cabbage half in half again, trim out the core from each section, then slice the cabbage thinly and add it to the dressing.

Quarter the red pepper and remove the stalk, seeds and membranes. Slice the flesh fairly thinly and add it to the bowl with the cabbage.

Peel or scrub and trim the carrots and grate them coarsely into the bowl with the other prepared veg. Add the raisins and mix everything together thoroughly.

Transfer the salad to a serving dish. Scatter with coriander, then the Tamari-coated peanuts and seeds, and it’s ready to serve.

*Feel free to swap the leaves in winter and use red or white cabbage. Try replacing the red pepper with fennel, and/or the carrot with beetroot. A dried fruit substitute could be dried cherries, or chopped dried apricots or dates instead of the raisins.

Equipment

Leaves: in Winter, use red or white cabbage.
Veg: try replacing the red pepper with fennel, and/or the carrot with beetroot.
Dried fruit: substitute dried cherries, or chopped dried apricots or dates, for the raisins.

Credits: River Cottage Much More Veg! by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is published by Bloomsbury ($45.00).