What Is A Picnic Without Coleslaw?

For most of my life, I was not particularly keen on coleslaw. That was only because as a kiddo, I ate a lot of shop-bought coleslaw, and I began to loathe the site of it. But when you taste homemade coleslaw, it’s a different experience. I started making coleslaw a couple of years ago when I realized my food processor could make easy work of the vegetable preparation.

When I saw Margot’s pulled pork sandwiches post, it reminded me that I had these photographs in my drafts folder and it seemed like a fitting addition for our 2020 SUMMER PICNIC.

There are two elements to a good coleslaw, the vegetables and the dressing. These are the main ingredients that go into my home made coleslaw:

• One white cabbage
• One onion – finely chopped
• Two carrots
• Three sticks of celery (Jack says it looks like there are only two in the picture but I promise you there are three)
• 60 g Sultanas
• Salt and Pepper
• 90ml Mayonnaise

The first step is tackling that cabbage. I cut it into quarters lengthwise and then removed the core.

Then I set up my food processor with the slicer. I love that in seconds the cabbage is slashed to fine ribbons. I finely chopped the onion, but to be honest, I probably should have added that to the food processor as well!

I put the shredded cabbage and chopped onion in a bowl with plenty of salt and pepper.

The second important part of a coleslaw is the dressing, and here are the ingredients I use:

• 6 tbsp of olive oil
• 2 tbsp of white wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp of lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp honey
• Salt and Pepper

After mixing the ingredients for the vinaigrette dressing I pour it over the cabbage and onion and mix thoroughly. Then I put it into the fridge and allow it to marinate overnight (at least eight hours).

The following day, I slice the celery finely and grate the carrots before adding them to the marinated cabbage, along with the sultanas and the mayonnaise. After another good mix I put the coleslaw back into the fridge for a good hour before serving.

Coleslaw never seemed very special to me, but now I have requests to take a bowl of my homemade coleslaw along to barbeques and garden parties. It’s a winner! It goes together with all sorts of al fresco dishes.

I have had to reshuffle the scheduling for posts to be published so many times this weekend But I wanted this post to follow Margot’s so much, so that we could continue the Grease theme…with “We Go Together“!