Asian Peanut Cabbage Crunch Salad

If you enjoy cabbage salads and want something other than the usual creamed coleslaw recipe, then you must try this.  This is a great salad to serve with grilled or baked chicken or BBQ meats.  You can also stuff this salad and grilled chicken in a pita pocket or lettuce wraps or any other style wrap.  It's quick to make and if you don't have time to do the chicken, get a rotisserie chicken from your local market and wrap it up and you have a complete meal.  This salad is a favorite and took a while to perfect.  Enjoy!

Wine Pairing:  Salads with vinegar tend to be tricky with pairing wine since the vinegar totally overpowers the wine and you can't enjoy the wine.  A good selection for these salads would be a Gruner which is a white wine and a grape that is primarily grown in Austria. It's not a sweet wine nor tart or too dry, it's just right and pairs well with Indian dishes as well.  It's very food friendly.  This kind of wine though you want to drink young rather then let it age in a wine cellar (if any of your wines make it to the cellar) =) Will post a picture of the one we had with this salad which was perfect!

What you need: 

1 Cup Slivered Almonds

1/4 Cup Sesame Seeds

1 Red Pepper Thinly Sliced

1 Half Head of Purple Cabbage shredded thinly 

1 head Green Cabbage shredded thinly

1 Bunch Scallions Chopped Green and White parts

2/3 Cup of Rice Vinegar (No Substitutes!)

1/2 Cup of Sugar or for the calorie conscience 12 packets of Splenda

1/4 Cup Smooth Peanut Butter

1 Tbsp Toasted Sesame Seed Oil

3/4 Cup Very HOT water

Salt & Pepper to taste

Let's Get to Work:

1. Take a baking sheet and spray some non-stick spray on and spread out the slivered almonds and sesame seeds and bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes or until toasty looking.  Keep checking every 5 minutes though as oven temps are all different and what might take 15 minutes for mine to be done may take 10 in yours.  So just watch them.  Once done let them cool on the pan as you prepare the rest of the salad.
2. For the Salad, take the cabbages and pepper slices and scallions and combine them in a bowl.
3. For the dressing, whisk together the rest of the ingredients until smooth.    If you like you can also had a few dashes of Sriracha hot sauce to this as well for a nice kick.
4. Pour the dressing over the salad along with the almonds and sesame seeds and place in the fridge for an hour tossing every 15 minutes to get all of the salad nicely coated and marinated with the dressing.  For presentation you can top the salad with the green part of the scallion chopped and then a small handful of crushed roasted peanuts.  Now is the time to get a fork and raise a glass of Gruner or 2 or.....!

Cheers to you and yours!

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