Peanut Slaw

Familiar with slaw’s? You know the mix of cabbage & carrots with a dressing… I was always a fan of a creamy mayo & sugar based slaw; especially on a vegan burger with bbq sauce. YUM! (yes, I still need to add my favorite recipe to JVE).

But now, I’m slightly obsessed with Thai flavors and have created a delicious cabbage & carrot based slaw with green onions and a peanut sauce.

This peanut sauce could easily be used on rice noodles or to dip spring rolls in!

What will you need?

Cabbage. I like green, red or a mix of these two cabbages. My directions go the easy route and use a 12oz bag of coleslaw. But, you could also buy a head of cabbage and chop it.

Carrots. Carrots should be included in your coleslaw bag but if they’re not or if you are choosing to use whole carrots, you can prepare them the traditional slaw way which is to julienne or use a peeler that has a julienne blade.

I’m not very good at using the julienne peeler and do not like to take the time to cut them julienne so I typically will use my vegetable peeler to shave the carrot, then chop it a bit.

Are you not familiar with shaving a carrot? It’s easy. You know how you use a vegetable peeler to “shave off” the outer layer of the carrot to throw away, just keep doing this until you have a very thin piece of carrot left. What you’ll be left with is long, thin and wide pieces of carrot.

That’s a shaved carrot!

Green Onion. Pretty simple. You can use the whole green onion; greens & whites or just the greens. Your choice.

Peanut Butter. This recipe was created with a peanut butter that is just peanuts & salt (no added oil or sugar). You can choose your favorite peanut butter… just be aware, the nutrition facts will be off and your slaw will be sweeter if you choose one that has added sugar.

Lime Juice. I am going to be honest here… I make this so much and use lemon & lime juices so much, I choose to buy the bottled juice because it is more cost efficient. Now, I will say fresh juice from a lime will always best when it comes to flavor but you do what is best for you.

Rice Vinegar. I have made this with rice vinegar, seasoned rice vinegar and even mirin (rice wine)… when I realized that I was out of rice vinegar in the midst of making this one time. All of them tasted great!

Maple Syrup. Simple enough. I have not tried this recipe with any other sweetener. If you do, it’s at your own risk. 😉

Fresh Ginger. This one feels like a non-negotiable. Powdered ginger doesn’t have the same effect as fresh ginger. Please grate it or chop “very finely” if you do not have a grater. You want the ginger to be fine enough that it distributes well throughout the sauce and you don’t bite into chunks.

Soy Sauce/Liquid Aminos. You choose. I use Liquid Aminos but you can use Soy Sauce. If you are gluten-free, choose either Liquid Aminos or Tamari.

Garlic Powder.

Red Pepper Flakes.

Salt.

How To Create Your Peanut Slaw

1. In a medium-large size bowl, mix all of your sauce ingredients together; peanut butter, lime juice, rice vinegar, maple syrup, grated ginger, soy sauce, garlic powder, red pepper flakes, and salt.

2. Add the cabbage, carrots, and green onions into the bowl. Gently mix well until the peanut sauce is covering all of the slaw.

3. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes; stirring a couple of times.

How Can You Serve Your Peanut Slaw?

• My favorite way is to serve it over jasmine rice with spicy tofu (recipe coming soon!).
• Add it as a spring roll filling.
• Serve on the side of your favorite Thai-style main dish.