This salad was inspired by the Chinese cabbage ‘One Kilo Slowbolt’ I’d grown from seed in March (sometimes called Korean cabbage, Napa cabbage or Wong Bok). Clearly also beloved of slugs, snails and aphids. Taking slightly more than the stated 55 days given the season but consequently free from the attention of cabbage white butterflies. Apart from the cashew nuts, all the salad ingredients came from the garden, albeit the chilli via the freezer. Daikon radish ‘Minowase long white’, carrot ‘topweight’ grown in a container, coriander self sown from the summer crop, spring onion ‘Ishikura’ sown in January. If you don’t like miso dressing, there’s a few alternative dressings here and another winter salad.
I have used a Borner V Slicer (White)* in my kitchen since about 1990 (on the second version currently which I’ve had for about 20 years). I know there are lots of slice/dice/grate gadgets that promise to change your life and don’t, but this one still earns its place in my pantry pretty much every day.
- 250g Chinese cabbage leaves finely shredded
- 100g Daikon radish julienned or grated
- 100g carrot julienned or grated
- Three spring onions finely chopped (I use most of the green as well as the white)
- One red chilli deseeded and finely chopped
- Bunch of fresh coriander finely chopped
- 100g cashew nuts toasted in the oven for 5-10 minutes. Raw unsalted peanuts would be good too.
- For the dressing
- 1 tbsp miso paste (I used Urban Hippie from Nelson) mixed with 1 tbsp hot water
- 1 tbsp sweet chilli sauce (adds garlic, sweetness and chilli all in one hit)
- ¼ cup vinegar (I used white wine vinegar but rice vinegar would have been more appropriate)
- ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tsp grated ginger fresh or from a jar
- 2 tsp sesame oil
- Layer the salad ingredients on a serving platter in the order listed.
- Put the dressing ingredients in a jam jar or dressing bottle and shake vigorously to combine. I think it tastes better if you make the dressing a few hours ahead to allow all the tastes to blend together.
- You can dress the whole salad or I prefer to let people dress their own on their plate so any leftover un-dressed salad can stay in the fridge for another day.
- The dressing will also keep well in the fridge.
- It works well as a dressing for coleslaw combined with an equal quantity of full fat yoghurt and poured over a mixture of grated carrot, finely chopped apple and shredded Savoy cabbage.
*this is an affiliate link which means I’ll get a tiny payment if you buy anything as a result of following it. The recommendation however is entirely my own and I’m sorely tempted by the purple 60th anniversary edition although I reckon there’s at least another 10 year’s service left in the current model. Maybe I’ll wait for the 70th anniversary edition.