Whew…what a hot Memorial Day weekend! And today we’re already at 91°F at 10 a.m.! With all this heat, we’ve been digging out some of the coolest, most refreshing recipes we can find–and ones that use our garden-fresh ingredients, of course. Here’s one of our winners, for using our first head of Red Acre cabbage. It was still pretty small, weighing in at 17 oz. (and about 4.5″ in diameter), but shredded, it made 3 cups, plenty for a recipe of ruby-red coleslaw.
I’ve prepared cabbage for slaw in a couple of different ways. Sometimes I’ve cut it by hand: slicing as thinly as possible and then chopping the pieces into 1-2″ lengths. This makes a very coarse coleslaw, great for people who really love the crunch and taste of fresh cabbage. This time, though, I prepared it using the grater attachment on the food processor, which makes for a very fine cut. Once the dressing is added, you almost can’t tell it’s cabbage anymore. So prepare according to your taste! (But do remember, before you start slicing or processing, to remove the hard inner stalk of the cabbage. I cut my heads in half, then make a couple of angular cuts to get out the stalk.)
My dressing recipe comes from one of my favorite cookbooks: The Best of Amish Cooking by Phyllis Pellman Good, compiled from the old family recipes of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Good includes recipes for a couple of different styles of slaw dressing, but I’m a fan of the sour cream style, so that’s what I’m giving you here.
Ruby Coleslaw
Shred enough red cabbage to make 3 cups. (You can use green cabbage, it’s just not as festive looking!) In another bowl, combine 1/3 C. sour cream, 2 T. sugar, 2 T. apple cider vinegar, and 1/2 tsp. salt. Mix, then fold into the shredded cabbage. Serve chilled.
gettin' fresh! 