Roasted Peanut Slaw

So, I rescued a giant cabbage from my mother's fridge, before she went away for a week.  Feeling a bit sad that this beautiful red cabbage might meet its impending doom, rotting away in the bottom drawer, I stole it away with the intent of using it in....something.

Fast forward a couple days, as I sit and flip through the TV channels... Switching between cooking shows and Criminal Minds... I spied a perky little blonde called Kelsey, on her show Kelsey's Essentials, making a fresh and simple dish she called Roasted Peanut Slaw.

With a few modifications to suit my own taste, and to accommodate what I had on hand, I came up with this recipe, and gave my cabbage a meaningful existence.

iPhone pic

Roasted Peanut Slaw
Adapted from Kelsey's Essentials (Cooking Channel)

1 medium head purple cabbage, shredded
5 scallions, thinly sliced
2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and minced
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, chopped
1 cup roasted unsalted peanuts, plus more for garnish
Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper
1/2 cup rice vinegar
4 teaspoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons smooth peanut butter, unsweetened natural
2 tablespoons sesame oil
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup canola oil



Toss the cabbage with the scallions, jalapenos, basil and peanuts. Season with salt and pepper.
In a small mixing bowl, whisk the vinegar, soy sauce, peanut butter, sesame oil and sugar together. Slowly whisk in the canola oil until dressing is emulsified.
Toss the dressing with the cabbage and garnish with roasted peanuts before serving.

Changes I made, and why:
My cabbage was purple, hers was Napa.  She used cilantro, which I'm sure would have been amazing.  I, however, has just gotten a giant zip lock bag of fresh basil from my boss, and had no cilantro... I had a bag of jalapenos from Trader Joe's that were burning a hole in my veggie bin, so I minced up a couple and hoped for the best. She recommended JIFFY as the brand of smooth peanut butter.  I have never bought Jiffy peanut butter in my life, and used unsweetened natural peanut butter.  She used 1/2 cup of oil, but I got away with half that amount.  And for "ha-has" I splashed in some Shaoxing rice wine along with the regular rice wine vinegar.

The end result: Delicious! A crisp, sweet and spicy salad, that I've been taking to lunch with me all week cuz it made a TON!! ^_^