This fall, I’m rediscovering the joys of slaws — that is, basic hearty salads consisting of any and all kinds of finely chopped greens and roots, dressed with something creamy. My current favorite variation on this theme is finely chopped cabbage, carrots, apples and parsley with a little minced onions and a simple dressing of 3 parts olive oil, 1 part cider vinegar, 1 part kefir and some salt. Yum!
But, really, you can put so many veggies together and they will be yummy, especially if they are finely chopped. Personally, I prefer chopping carefully with a knife, rather than grating, simply because I think the texture holds up better. I chop greens into longer thin strips (technically, a “chiffonade”), but roots I chop into smaller square pieces. Cabbage is almost always a mainstay ingredient, but you can add many other flavors to the mix: kale, chard, radicchio, carrots, beets, and/or celery root!