Asian Slaw with Forbidden Rice
Besides trying to competely recreate old favorite dishes from a sheer sense of craving and nostalgia, one of my favorite pasttimes is rifling through vegan and vegetarian recipe books and finding recipes worthy of a raw redux. That’s essentially how this Asian slaw came to be.
I love to just start going through the ingredients in any given recipe and subbing one ingredient for another in my head. Sometimes I just plain talk to myself. it’s spooky for everyone else. I’ll be sitting on the couch muttering as if incanting some strange spell, periodically running to the kitchen to check on whether or not certain things are in the refrigerator or cabinets and, if not, what I might have instead. If I get really excited I’ll exclaim out loud out of the sheer blue. Usually something totally unrelated to whatever is going on in the room – like, “Almond butter!” and anyone in the vicinity will be completely freaked out. In this way many new recipes spring forth and evolve.
Simultaneously, I honestly think the family believes I hover at the brink of culinary insanity.
Brainstorming Bears Fruit… or Slaw
I riffed off a recipe from a Forks Over Knives magazine because healthy as it was, it had all kinds of things in it that didn’t fit the raw bill. Several parts of the mix were cooked. So we switched it up for raw compliance and I guarantee it’s every bit as tasty as the original recipe. Especially because we can actually eat this one! And there’s no cooking -or dehydrating-involved. Just some quick and meditative slicing.
We have included forbidden rice in this recipe. Most often it’s ready to eat after soaking overnight and I use it in so many things that I usually have a little prepared and on-hand. It has a wonderful texture and slightly nutty taste that truly lends something to this dish but you could leave it out if you wanted. It’s almost the only thing in the entire recipe that would require any forethought or advance preparation as long as you had all the ingredients on hand. Originally I thought I might make a super simple jicama rice to combine with the slaw but forbidden rice somehow seemed so appropriate for the whole Asian theme. Your choice. No doubt, it’ll be good.
I was certainly happy with the way this one turned out. I can honestly say, that in most cases the kids have transcended pickiness although there are a few exceptions. Mushrooms are touch and go, cauliflower can be questionable and one of them hates green beans and says they taste like, “nothing”. But for the most part they have become solid taste testers; they may push mushrooms aside but they do give everything a pretty fair shot. This one was easy. No one picked anything out. Every bowl was scraped clean. Kid tested and approved all the way. And me? I ate an enormous serving in one sitting.
All that cabbage. Wow. It’s like a brush for your insides. Surely it’s no wonder that I’m feeling particularly clean today.
RAW VEGAN RECIPE: Asian Slaw with Forbidden Rice
3 cups thinly sliced green cabbage
2 cups thinly sliced napa cabbage
2 cups thinly sliced red cabbage
3 carrots, shredded
1 large jalapeno, minced
1 bunch scallions (approximately 6 scallions, sliced thin lenthwise and cut into 2 inch pieces
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
3 cups forbidden rice, soaked overnight to soften and bloom
1/4 cup Nama Shoyu
3 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar
3 Tablespoons raw almon butter
Juice of 1/2 lime
1 1/2 Tablespoons fresh ginger, grated
red pepper to taste
In a large bowl combine all three cabbages, carrots, jalapeno, scallions and cilantro. Mix to incorporate well.
To make the dressing, combine Nama Shoyu, cider vinegar, almond butter, grated ginger and lime juice and mix well to a creamy consistency. Add a generous grinding of red pepper and mix again.
Pour the dressing over mixed Asian slaw and toss well to blend flavors.
SERVES 4-6
