Gratitude Slaw

Whenever I’m invited to a gathering where everyone brings a dish to share, this bright green and delightfully crunchy cabbage salad always comes to mind. I came across it on The Kitchn. It’s a recipe site I love, knowing I can turn to it when I’m looking for something standard, a solid recipe for a classic, or a reliable “how-to-do X?”

It’s my go-to for burning questions like “how to make hard-boiled eggs that don’t go green”; recipes for popovers, or fudge, or hollandaise sauce; or in this particular case, “vegetable sides for Thanksgiving”.

There I found their “Thanksgiving Slaw”, originally posted by Christine Gallary in 2016. I loved it not only for its inimitable raw-cabbage crunch, sweet notes of maple syrup and dried cranberries, and hardy, flexible chops.

This past weekend I planned to make it for a family birthday gathering, so I had all the ingredients, but time got away from me and suddenly it was nearly departure time, and I hadn’t even grabbed the cabbages from the fridge.

That’s plural, not because this takes an extraordinary amount of cabbage, but because I had the pleasure of using these petite beauties which I had scored at the Durham Farmers Market that morning.

For five cups of shredded cabbage, it took two of these tiny cruciferous treasures; with a standard-sized head of cabbage, you’ll only need about half the cabbage for this recipe.

But starting from cabbage-grabbing, I had my delicious and pretty slaw ready to go in just under half an hour. First I whisked together the dressing in a big bowl, and stirred in the sliced red (aka purple) onion to soften up and share their sweetness.

Then I chopped up some parsley, and enough cabbage to make 5 cups. From there it was a little measuring and then mixing and tossing, resulting in this lovely tumble of green goodness:

I usually make it all the way and take the completed dish along; I love it with 30 minutes to an hour of resting time, dressed before serving. If you want maximum crunchiness, or several hours of wait time, you could take dressing and greens separately and toss them together closer to serving time.

My main change from the original recipe is going halvesies: I cut the recipe down to 5 cups of cabbage instead of 10, which is a good amount for 4 to 6 people. Just double it for a larger crowd.

I call my slightly adapted version “Gratitude Slaw”. because I knew on first eating that I would not want to wait for a whole year to make this again. While it’s a fantastic addition to a standard Thanksgiving menu with lots of inviting dishes to enjoy and more sweets than fresh green savories, it’s a welcome and delicious salad to make and enjoy and share all seasons, all occasions.

Here’s the recipe, which I hope you will make and enjoy. Please know that I am grateful that you are here!

Gratitude Slaw

For the dressing:

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

1 tablespoon maple syrup

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 medium red onion, sliced into thin strips

For the salad:

5 cups finely shredded green cabbage* (see Note)

1/2 cup sliced almonds, toasted

1/2 cup dried cranberries

1/2 cup fresh Italian parsley leaves, coarsely chopped

Kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Make the dressing:

Whisk the vinegar, oil, maple syrup, Dijon, and salt together in a large bowl. Add the red onion and stir to combine. Let sit at least 10 minutes for the flavors to meld; or up to 3 hours. Meanwhile, prepare the cabbage.

Make the salad:

Add the shredded cabbage, almonds, cranberries, and parsley to the dressing and toss to combine. Taste and season with salt and pepper as needed.

*NOTE:

To prepare the cabbage, cut a small head of cabbage into eight wedges, cutting it lengthwise through the core. Cut out and discard the core portion from each wedge. Thinly slice the cabbage wedges crosswise to shred them into thin strips, and measure out 5 cups

Click below for a printable version of Gratitude Slaw:

Gratitude Slaw Recipe

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