Red Cabbage Salad with Apple and Toasted Cashews (aka “tasty kraut for cheaters”)

Cabbage gets a bad rap. Sure, nothing smells like cabbage. Maybe smelly shoes.

But there’s a trick to making it delicious. Actually, there are two. First, massage it with salt. Or, second, roast it. Sounds weird to roast cabbage, right? It’s not. It’s a one roasting pan wonder. Toss it with a little oil and salt (a tablespoon of oil or so and a 1/2 tsp salt per pan, approx.) and follow this recipe. Fish optional, but encouraged. Tomatoes and bok choy definitely optional.

My favourite way is definitely just masssaging it with salt. It’s also how you start sauerkraut, that digestive enzyme-heavy sour and salty concoction. It’s so much easier on your stomach than à la minute coleslaw so I merged the two concepts in this recipe. Massage the cabbage with salt to make it softer and “cook” it slightly without the acidity of the fermentation. Then add your own vinegar, in this case unpasteurized apple cider for those digestive enzymes and suddenly you have kraut for cheaters.

Plus a little apple for sweetness and toasted some cashew pieces for crunchy savoury protein. Result? A perfect lunch or side dish. It takes willpower to STOP eating this salad. When was the last time you said that about cabbage?

Red Cabbage Salad with Apple and Toasted Cashews (aka “Tasty kraut for cheaters”)

1/2 red cabbage (or 1 small one, or use the whole thing and increase the other ingredients if you really love cabbage, or make this a second time and realize how you should have made a whole one the first time…)
1 tbsp salt
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar, preferably unpasteurized
1 tbsp honey, optional
1 apple
1/4 cup cashew pieces
1 tbsp oil (olive, walnut, sunflower, etc)

Chop or grate or use a mandoline to grate the cabbage into thin slices. A little thicker or thinner is not a big deal, but if you chop the cabbage, make sure you slice it as thin as possible).

Combine in a large bowl with the salt and massage the salt into the cabbage for about 5 minutes, until it releases a lot of it juices and starts to soften.

Slice apple on mandoline (or grate or slice by hand) and add to the cabbage.

Remove cabbage without juice to another bowl (reserving juice in first bowl, or discarding. Some people might find it too salty, and now the cabbage will be plenty salty on its own). Combine apple cider vinegar, optional honey, and oil either to the juices or in a small bowl without the juices. Pour over cabbage and apple. Toss to combine.

Toast cashews in a small baking sheet in a 350 oven for about 3 minutes. Toss nuts and roast another 2 minutes or until aromatic and brown. Don’t let them burn. Pour over cabbage. Serve, or chill until needed. This keeps about 5 days in the fridge and it doesn’t get any worse, except the nuts soften.