Cecilie’s Favorite Coleslaw

A hybrid salad that combines spicy vinegar and mayo for the dressing, Cecilie’s favorite coleslaw is our go-to recipe whenever coleslaw is on the menu.

I am not a fan of gloopy mayo heavy coleslaw so I used to make one that was more like cabbage with vinaigrette dressing until it occurred to me that I could add some mayonnaise and have the best of both worlds.  

In my recipe files, I’ve been calling this New Year’s Day Coleslaw for years because it’s the one I always make when you gotta eat cabbage for money and black-eyed peas for luck. But a couple of years ago, when my younger daughter Cecilie asked me for it, I had to send her a Word file which made me I realized that I had never shared it here.

With this third installment of our Alphabet Challenge for 2024 being brought to you by the letter C, it seemed like the perfect time. And, in honor of her love of this salad, it seemed appropriate to rename it Cecilie’s favorite coleslaw. 

Cecilie’s Favorite Coleslaw

Don’t get too caught up on the size of your onion or cabbage. This is one of those salads, like most salads, where some more or a little less really doesn’t make a difference. 

Ingredients

1 small hot red chili pepper

1/2 small purple onion

3 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar

1 small cabbage or half a larger one

3 tablespoons mayonnaise

Freshly ground black pepper 

Method

Finely mince the chili pepper and slice the purple onion as thinly as you can. 

Put both in a large salad bowl with the vinegar. 

Stir well and leave to macerate for at least five minutes. This helps mellow the sharpness of the onion while also making sure that the chili pepper flavor and heat will be well distributed throughout the coleslaw. 

Slice the cabbage as thinly as you can, removing the hard stems and any tough ribs as you go.

Add the mayonnaise to the onion bowl and stir well. 

Now we are talking a nice, spicy not too mayo-heavy dressing! 

Add the sliced cabbage to the bowl and stir well/toss to coat it with the dressing. 

Add a few good grinds of black pepper and toss again. 

This coleslaw can be eaten immediately but it also keeps well and tastes even better if left for at least 30 minutes. If you are not eating it within 30 minutes, do cover the coleslaw and refrigerate it because of the mayonnaise. I actually like it better chilled but you do you.

Enjoy!

As I mentioned above, it’s time for our Alphabet Challenge and today’s recipes are brought to you by the letter C. Many thanks to our organizer, my dear friend and fellow blogger, Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm. Check out the C recipes below: 

• A Day in the Life on the Farm: Chicken Pastina Soup 
• Palatable Pastime: Caldo Gallego Cubano 
• Sneha’s Recipe: Carnivore Meatzza 
• Food Lust People Love: Cecilie’s Favorite Coleslaw 
• Culinary Cam: Crab-Stuffed Ravioli 
• Karen’s Kitchen Stories: Cheesy Burger Buns 
• Sizzling Tastebuds: Classic Chickpea Hummus 
• Jolene’s Recipe Journal: Cherry Chocolate Chip Waffles with Cherry Syrup 
• Mayuri’s Jikoni: Cranberry Achar | Cranberry Pickle 
• Blogghetti: Cherry Cream Cheese Cookies 
• Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice: Dove Dark Chocolate Chunk Cakey Muffins 
• Magical Ingredients: Chocolate Cashew Coconut Caramel Stuffed Paratha

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Red Cabbage Apple Mandarin Salad

Crunchy and light, this Red Cabbage Apple Mandarin Salad is a great side dish with seasonal cabbage, citrus and crisp apples to brighten a winter day. 

This salad is inspired by one created by Chef Katy Sparks that I found a few years ago when I was searching online for winter salads. We love salads all year round and this one is one of my favorites because of the mix of tart and sweet with the added boost of flavor from the orange syrup. 

You will have some of the orange syrup left over. Drizzle it over pancakes or even hot buttered toast. Hope it brightens your day too! 

Red Cabbage Apple Mandarin Salad

If you can’t find mandarin oranges, use clementines, navel oranges or whatever sweet citrus you do have to hand. Blood oranges would be good in this salad too. Larger oranges can be cut into big sized pieces. I’ve given the weights of my onion, cabbage, apple and mandarins below but know that if yours weigh a little more or less, it’s all good. This salad is very forgiving. It’s also easily doubled or trebled. 

Ingredients

For the mandarin orange double syrup:

1/2 cup or 50g sugar

1/4 cup or 60ml water

zest peeled thinly from 1 mandarin (see photo below)

For the salad:

1/2 Spanish onion (6.5 oz or 184g whole) 

1/4 cup or 60ml walnut or cider vinegar

1/2 large green apple (9.5 oz or 270g whole)  

1 small red cabbage (about 1 lb or 450g whole)

2 tablespoons mandarin orange double syrup

3 mandarin oranges (each about 2.3 oz or 65g whole)

Method

First, to make the mandarin double syrup, heat all the ingredients in a small pot over a low heat until the sugar is completely dissolved. Set aside to cool. Store in a clean jar. 

Slice the onion as thinly as you can and put it in a large bowl with the vinegar. 

Cut the half apple in half again and remove the core. Slice it as thinly as you can and toss the apple slices in the vinegar with the onion. This will keep them from turning brown. 

Discard any tough outer leaves of the cabbage. Cut it in half and then remove the core. Slice the rest of the cabbage as thinly as you can. Add the orange syrup to the apples and onion and toss to combine. Add in the cabbage and toss again. 

Peel the mandarins, carefully removing all of the white pith. Separate into pegs. 

Add the mandarin pegs to the salad and toss again. Serve the salad at room temperature or chilled.

Enjoy!

Happy Sunday FunDay! Today we are serving up healthy salads we hope you will enjoy! Check them out below. Many thanks to our host, Sneha of Sneha's Recipe.

• Broccoli and Cauliflower Salad from Palatable Pastime
• Golden Apple & Potato Salad from Sneha's Recipe
• Irish Cheddar Honey Mustard Broccoli Salad from  Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice
• Japanese Potato Salad from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Kale Salad with Strawberry Vinaigrette from Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Red Cabbage, Apple, Mandarin Salad from Food Lust People Love
• Sesame Chicken Salad from Making Miracles
• Super Nacho Taco Salad from Amy's Cooking Adventures

We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.

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Beef and Smoked Sausage Cabbage Rolls #FoodieExtravaganza

Ground beef and smoked sausage cabbage rolls smothered in a rich tomato sauce are the perfect meal. Vegetables and protein, all in one neat and tasty package.

I’ve never done one of those DNA tests, but with one grandmother whose maiden name was Fleming, I always figured that I am at least one quarter Irish. And while most of the recipes I learned from that grandmother were of Cajun origin (Mo, as we called her, grew up in southern Louisiana after all) a few probably came more from her Irish heritage.

Her cabbage rolls, for instance. Definitely not a Cajun thing. The way I remember it, when I was growing up, my mom used to make cabbage rolls using both ground beef and pork because I’m pretty sure that’s how my grandmother used to make them as well. Mo was always one to mix meats. She would never cook a beef pot roast alone. She added a pork roast to the pot saying that together they made each other taste better.

All my life, that’s what I’ve always done too, until just the other day when I decided that smoked sausage would be an even better idea than plain ground pork in cabbage rolls. And since I was trying to go low carb when I made them, I also left out the traditional rice my mom and grandmother would have added. If you'd like, you can add a 1/2 cup or 50g of raw rice to the filling mixture. But I promise you won't miss it if you don't.

Beef and Smoked Sausage Cabbage Rolls

Back in the day, my mother and grandmother would have blanched the cabbage leaves in hot water to soften them. By accidentally freezing lettuce at the back of my too-cold refrigerator, I discovered that freezing them does the same magic with way less fuss and bother.

Ingredients - serves 4: 2 cabbage rolls each
For the rolls:
8 whole cabbage leaves

For the filling:
1 medium onion, peeled and quartered
1/2 smoked sausage link (8 oz or 225g), cut into chunks
4 cloves garlic
2 large eggs
1 lb or 450g ground beef
1/2-1 teaspoon ground cayenne
Few generous grinds black pepper
Salt to taste
2 cabbage leaves, finely chopped (hard ribs removed and discarded)
Optional: 1/2 cup or 50g uncooked rice

For the sauce:
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3 anchovy fillets
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground fennel
1/2 cup or 120ml dry red wine
4 cups or 1 kg canned chopped tomatoes with their juice
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Parsley to garnish

Method
Put the whole cabbage leaves in the freezer to soften them.

Pulse the sausage chunks, quartered onion and garlic cloves in a food processor till they are turned into small pieces.

Add in the two eggs and pulse again until just combined. In a large bowl, combine the sausage/egg with the ground beef. Season with the two peppers and mix well.

Fry a couple of teaspoons of the mixture in a small pan. Taste and add more pepper, if necessary. I put more cayenne because we like things spicy. Here’s where you can add some salt if needed as well. My smoked sausage added enough saltiness to the mixture for my taste. You may want more.

Add in the finely chopped cabbage (and optional rice if using) and mix well again. Chill the filling while you get the sauce ready to go.

In a pan big enough to eventually hold 8 cabbage rolls, sauté the garlic and the anchovies in the olive oil until the garlic softens and the anchovies turn to mush. Sprinkle in the paprika, cumin and fennel.

 Give it all a quick stir then add the wine. Pour in the chopped tomatoes. Bring the pan to a boil and then lower it to a simmer. Sprinkle on some freshly ground black pepper.

Cook for about 10-15 minutes with the lid removed. Add in the baking soda. Stir till the bubbles stop. Adding baking soda to a tomato sauce was a trick I learned from an Italian mama. It sweetens the sauce slightly by reacting with (and reducing) the natural acidity of the tomatoes.

Pop the lid back on and turn the fire off while you stuff your cabbage.

Remove the cabbage leaves from the freezer. As they thaw, they should be soft and pliable.

Use a sharp knife to cut out the hard ribs in the middle and discard them. Stuff the cabbage leaves with the filling, folding the leaves around it.

 

Fit the cabbage rolls into the sauce pan.

Spoon sauce over the tops. Put the lid of the pan on and cook over a low fire for about 50-60 minutes. Check from time to time and add a little water if the sauce looks like it's drying out.

My grandmother never considered a dish finished without some parsley for garnish. Sprinkle on a little chopped parsley before serving.

Enjoy!

This month my Foodie Extravaganza friends are celebrating National Irish Food Day, or National "Eat Like an Irishman" Day (March 17th) early, by cooking and sharing Irish recipes. Many thanks to our host Karen of Karen's Kitchen Stories for her behind the scenes work and this fun theme.

• Beef and Smoked Sausage Cabbage Rolls from Food Lust People Love
• Colcannon from Sneha's Recipe
• Colcannon (Irish Potatoes and Cabbage) from Caroline's Cooking
• Cold Irish Day Cocktail from Our Good Life
• Dublin Coddle - Irish Bacon, Sausage, and Potato Stew from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Instant Pot Dublin Coddle from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Irish Cheese and Walnut Biscuits from Simply Inspired Meals
• Irish Coffee from Tara's Multicultural Table
• Mushy Peas from Pandemonium Noshery
• Traditional Shepherd's Pie from Cookaholic Wife

Foodie Extravaganza celebrates obscure food holidays by posting delicious recipes your family will love. Posting day is always the first Wednesday of each month. If you are a blogger and would like to join our group and blog along with us, come join our Facebook page Foodie Extravaganza. We would love to have you! If you're a home cook looking for tasty recipes, check out our Foodie Extravaganza Pinterest Board!

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