RED CABBAGE CRUNCHY SLAW WITH CHILL AND BARRAMUNDI

A salad a day keeps the weight at bay! Let your imagination go wild in the kitchen with this fresh, crunchy, delectable, salad.

Fresh food, lots of it, is best for your health, your waistline and looking great well past your years. So put down your cup of tea and those processed biscuits or pastry and get creative with salads. For those of you feeling over heated as your hormones go crazy post 50, leave the chilli flakes out, 19seventiesgirl does not want anyone on the boil.

Eating raw foods gives you the maximum nutritional benefits, packed with vitamins, minerals and fibre and I am sure you prefer a crunchy slaw to a wilted bowl of cabbage any day? Salads are a great way to work your way across the food rainbow. Different coloured fruits and vegetables bring different benefits and this salad has plenty on hand. So far, all news is good on the salad front, variety is key as the lettuce, tomato; cucumber combination is boring and has lost its appeal….. totally!

Like all salads, many variations can be made from the original recipe with the addition of toasted nuts and seeds, healthier dressings…….nothing out of a bottle please, unless it’s the bottle you made with your own fair hands plus an endless combination of fresh herbs, fruit and vegetables.

A good salad dressing is as important as dressing yourself. They are quick, easy to make and become the piece de résistance of any salad! Next time you are in the  salad dressing section of the supermarket….keep walking……. you can do this, make the difference with a move from processed to fresh, you will never look back!

Cabbage is cheap and goes a long way, the texture is great for salads and red cabbage is the jewel in the crown for this dish. I was a bit over enthusiastic making the salad, so the quantity blew out from 4 serves to 8 or……. More! Therefore great for leftovers, lunch the next day, just add more nuts, some sliced boiled egg or shredded chicken, or halve the recipe to suit what you need.

*To save time, use a food processor to grate carrot and shred cabbage or a mandolin

RED CABBAGE CRUNCHY SLAW WITH CHILL AND BARRAMUNDI

Serves 8

You need:

*Important: always wash all fruit and vegetables before cooking

1 cup finely shredded green cabbage

1 ½ cups finely shredded red cabbage

2 spring onions, ends removed, finely sliced

1 carrot, washed, skin left on grated

1 small Lebanese cucumber cut in half lengthwise and finely sliced

I apple with skin left on, julienned, I have a great gadget for this, see picture.

1-2 tablespoons flat leaf parsley finely chopped

1 handful of dark lettuce such as oak leaf or spinach, finely shredded

3-4 small red radishes finely sliced

Garnish

1 firm yellow freestone peach, sliced with skin on

½ cup almonds and walnuts, lightly toasted and roughly chopped

Dressing

¾ -1 cup natural yogurt, I used a sheep yogurt

1 large tablespoon of mayonnaise that you made all by your clever self. Mayonnaise can be made and stored in the fridge for a week or two.

1 level teaspoon Dijon mustard

Zest of a lemon

Zest of an orange

Juice from 1 orange

½ teaspoon dry chilli flakes

Barramundi

Per person: 1 piece of barramundi about 120-150gms each in size (or other fish)

1-2 tablespoons of olive oil depending on how many pieces of fish you make

1 lemon

Fresh cracked black pepper

To make:

Place all salad ingredients, except garnish, into a large salad bowl

Place all dressing ingredients into a jug or small bowl and whisk together with a fork or small whisk, add to salad.

Place bowl in the sink and with very clean hands, gently toss the salad and dressing to combine.

Garnish with nuts, a few radish slices and sliced peach and you have a feast for the eyes and taste buds

Fish

Heat olive oil in heavy based frypan on medium heat

Place fish into pan, skin side down

Cook until the skin is nice and crisp

Turn and finish cooking, I like fish to be cooked through to the centre, test with a small knife the fish will turn opaque and flake away as you cut.

Serve with salad and lemon wedges and cracked black pepper

Bon appetite

 

X 19seventies girl