The Return of the Cabbage Craving- Fennel, Apple and Red Cabbage Slaw

I am craving cabbage again. One of the interesting things about writing this food blog is that I have a record of what I was cooking and eating a year ago and I was craving cabbage at this time last year also. Here is my theory… cabbage has a lot of vitamin C (I think) and this is the time of year that I begin visiting 500 school children a week for work. My cravings are helping me boost my immune system…or I just crave cabbage in the fall.

I made this salad up as a side dish for pork belly which I cooked for the first time last weekend. Over the week, the leftover slaw has been a terrific side for hamburgers, BLTs and corn pudding. My first version was shredded and my husband suggested that it would be tastier if it was chopped up fine, like a southern style slaw. Boy was he right! It’s so funny how texture can totally change the taste of something!

FENNEL, APPLE and RED CABBAGE SLAW

1/2 of a small head of Red Cabbage
1 bulb fennel (about the size of an orange
4 large apples (I like honeycrisp apples)
1 batch of home-made mayonnaise
The juice of 1 lemon
a tablespoon of Dijon mustard (if you are gluten free check the lable of your mustard to make sure that the brand you are using is okay for you)
celery salt to taste (more than you think)
cayenne pepper to taste (more than you think)
freshly ground black pepper to taste

You can mince all of the vegetables and then combine everything OR you can just shred the vegetables, combine everything and then mince it in a food processor. I’ve done both and it was great either way!

I’d say that these amounts are just guidelines, BUT the salad is tastier if it has about equal parts of cabbage, fennel and apple. This means that unless you are making it to feed a huge gathering, you will not use your entire head of cabbage. Don’t worry! Cabbage keeps well for a while in the fridge AND it just so happens that we have posted many recipes on Big Sis Little Dish that call for cabbage. Here is a list of links to recipes to help you use up the rest of your cabbage head.