Thursday 5 February 2015

Coleslaw: A Winter Staple

Homemade coleslaw recipe - by Alexis at www.somethingimade.co.uk

A good 'slaw has become something that I seem to find myself making on an almost weekly basis - it's joined bolognaise, sausage and lentil casserole and chilli as one of our winter staple dishes.
I love it; it's adaptable to various ingredients, feels healthy (even though I've never really worked out how much mayonnaise I use... so the optimal word here is 'feels') it goes with pretty much everything and keeps ok for a few days too.

I've been meaning to blog about it for a while... mainly because in the weird world that I occupy taking some good photos of food suddenly has become something I wanted to do.* Unfortunately I hardly ever cook in daylight - not that we're even getting much daylight at the moment. Every time I opened the fridge last week I'd be tempted to cook the red cabbage - but I held myself back and in the fading light of Sunday afternoon, much to the children's amusement I made and shot my coleslaw. We ate some of it with baked potatoes and I've had it everyday for lunch since.

Homemade coleslaw recipe with red cabbage and red onion - by Alexis at www.somethingimade.co.uk

The very first thing I do is I cut up my onion and soak it in lemon juice...

Homemade coleslaw recipe with red cabbage and red onion - by Alexis at www.somethingimade.co.uk

I have a  tendancy to get a bit obsessed about getting all my ingredients chopped to a similar size... although Henry loves chopping so I often have to turn a blind eye to the random sized chunks of apple and celery that he throws in the mix...

Homemade coleslaw recipe - by Alexis at www.somethingimade.co.uk

We generally use a mix of mayonnaise and yogurt on our 'slaw - sometimes some mustard and olive oil too - a good grind of pepper and a salt then mix it up.
It was so dark by this point in proceedings that I had to go outside to get this photo!

I need some more go-to recipes...
I always need some more go-to recipes!

*If you too have an urge to take good photos of food then Catherine of the blog Borrowed Light is running a food photography and styling workshop in July - see details here.

5 comments:

  1. I'm a big fan of the winter slaw too. I mix up the veggies a bit - sometimes add celeriac, sometimes beetroot. I like adding different flavours to it too - a bit of chilli oil, soy sauce and a dash of fish sauce works. What else am I cooking at the moment? I love raddichio. Add some blood orange, fennel and a bit of mozzarella. Yum. (I know what you mean about the photography. By the time I get round to cooking it's always dark and the fluorescent light in my kitchen doesn't really do it for me!) x

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    1. Yes beetroot! Must get that in. I love celeriac but find it doesn't keep so well in the slaw. A celeriac remoulade is a fine thing too though right? I've just got the Anna Jones book 'a modern way to eat' after seeing lots of people raving about it on instagram - looks quite up your street, have you got it?

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    2. I have it (of course I have it!). I have a bit of a problem when it comes to cook books. I'm trying to limit how many I buy...but it's not easy when people keep on making really beautiful cook books that I simply must own. (And yes to celeriac remoulade!!)

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  2. I never know what to do with red cabage, your photos make me feel like cooking right now ! Did you do the photography course ?

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