Happy Snacking – Clean Coleslaw Recipe

I’m a big lover of mayonnaise. In fact, my college dorm-mate decided she was going to enter me into a mayo eating contest after watching me lick the mayo’d butter knife clean when I was done making myself sandwiches. Luckily, this never happened – it would not have helped my bad habit!

Sadly, the stuff is not remotely healthy, so I’ve ditched it. I officially stopped carrying it in my fridge the day I started my 28-day detox. To be honest, I don’t miss the stuff one bit – I make an alternative home-made version when I’m craving tuna salad or egg salad (get the recipe here!). But otherwise, I’ve simply changed the ingredients that go into things that previously called for mayo.

The heat of the last summer days made me long to use the bit of extra cabbage I had left over to make coleslaw. I was actually never a fan of the mayo-smothered version growing up, but since I’ve started making alternative versions I have fallen in love with the stuff! So what to do instead of mayo?  So many Californians love to substitute avocado for everything, but I never acquired a taste for the earthy fatty goodness that my friends and family covet. Besides, if you’re already getting your fats through oils, nuts and seeds, why not keep the cabbage light?

I concocted a clean coleslaw recipe using just what I had in my fridge and pantry already that I am really loving. If you’re currently going through an anti-inflammatory detox, just ditch the apples from the recipe (Dr. Asa allows them in his since they are not inflammatory, but I know I ditched fruit altogether while I was on it for the psychological benefits of kicking my sweet cravings).

Megs’ Clean & Light Coleslaw

Staring down the sides of a jar of leftovers never looked so bright & delicious!

Ingredients: 

• 1/2 green cabbage – organic
• 1 medium carrot – organic
• 1 apple of your choice in varietal – organic (I used red delicious)
• 3 scallion stalks, chopped – organic
• 1/3 cup red wine vinegar – organic
• 1-2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil – organic (eyeball the quantity – you don’t need much)
• Juice of 2 limes
• poppy seeds to taste
• salt & pepper to taste
• Paprika to taste (at least 2 teaspoons)
• optional: for a sweet & spicy kick develop the flavors further by adding in a touch of sriracha sauce or cayenne pepper.
• optional: for a nuttier flavor and more stick factor, consider a tablespoon of almond butter (so much for skipping the extra healthy fats 😉 ). Or if it’s more sweetness and texture you crave, go for honey instead.
• optional: 1/4 purple cabbage (and adjust your green down to a 1/4 too – I didn’t have purple on hand when I made it and it turned out great with just the green!).

Instructions:

1. Chop up your cabbage into fine slices. TIP: chop it into chunks and throw it into the food processor with a fine blade and let the machine do the chopping for you! I only let it run for a few seconds and we were done!
2. Use a carrot peeler to slice slivers of carrots – chop them smaller if you wish. Core & chop your apple into matchsticks.
3. Blend all of your fruit & veg, then add in all of the wet ingredients. Once the wet ingredients have blended to your liking, add in all of the spices.
4. Keep the leftovers refrigerated. Bonus: The lime juice in the recipe will keep the apples from browning quickly!

Want to try another version? I once made this spiralized apple slaw from SkinnyTaste for a BBQ and it was a big hit!

Enjoy! #noms !