Cabbage apple slaw in a maple dressing

When you buy a head of cabbage, there is a lot to it.  Enough that after chopping off about a quarter of it, you're left wondering what the heck you're supposed to do with the rest of it.  I considered this, because I've made that before and it was delicious, but my cabbage was green, not purple, and I didn't really feel like cooked cabbage, anyway.  I decided on a cabbage salad/slaw thing, mostly because recently I had one of those delicious Vietnamese salads in Chinatown where it's raw cabbage and carrots and cucumber and herbs and a yummy dressing, and the cabbage is actually quite edible.  We also had some sour cream in the fridge, and I was thinking that maybe I could turn that into a dressing of note.  The end result included apples, basil, cilantro, toasted walnuts, and a handful of raw grated beets on top, tossed in a creamy, sweet and sour dressing.  It was really good!  Yet another way to make cabbage edible!



Cabbage apple slaw
1/2 head of cabbage, thinly sliced
1 apple, cut into matchsticks
a small handful of basil leaves, chiffonaded
a handful of cilantro leaves, coarsely chopped
a handful of walnuts, chopped and toasted
1/2 beet, peeled and grated

Dressing
Sour cream
Maple syrup
Sherry vinegar
Olive oil
Worcestershire sauce
Sesame oil
Salt
Dijon mustard

For the dressing, put all those ingredients on a table.  The dressing wants to be ~1/3 sour cream, 1/4 vinegar, 5/12s everything else (did I just complicate things? Yes I did.  Go with 1/3, 1/3, 1/3).  I mix all the flavors before adding oil, and I found I didn't need much oil to cut the vinegar-y-ness.  Taste along the way.  Adjust as you like.

For the salad, mix everything except the beets into a big bowl.  Toss with plenty of kosher salt and then the dressing, and let sit for a bit so the cabbage can soften.  When you're ready to serve, put a pile of slaw, and top with a small handful of grated beets.  They're deliciously sweet and earthy tasting, and make the salad look much more appealing because of the color.  If you add them too soon, though, everything just turns light pink, and reminds me of 1950s jello salads.

Also, this got a totally satisfactory Ed-rating.  It was good!