Napa cabbage is great to have around the house. They stay fresh in the fridge for a long time and are good building blocks to many chinese dishes. I remember back in my days in university, it was the one vegetable that I always purchased, especially in winter when choices for fresh vegetable became scarce. It was a pleasant surprise to receive a huge head of napa cabbage from my CSA share recently. Asian produce was a bit unexpected. Not that I'm complaining!
The following is a quick slaw with strong asian flavour. I love flavourful ingredients such as sesame oil, cilantro, and toasty oil-roasted peanuts (still in their skin). As for the red chili pepper, I'm a whimp when it comes to spicy food. You can certainly add more if you're into heat. Another option is to stir in a couple teaspoons of chili sauce into the dressing.
Chinese Slaw With Five-Spice Tofu
serves 4
nutritional analysis availabe here
Ingredients
- 10 leaves of nappa cabbage, cut into 1/2 inch wide stripes
- 1/4 cup carrots, julienned
- 1 stalk of green onion, chopped
- 1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
- 225g five-spice marinated firm tofu, cut into thin stripes
- 1 red hot chili pepper, finely diced
- 1/2 cup roasted salted peanuts
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tbsp sesame oil
- 2 tbsp rice vinegar
- 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
- 2 tsp sugar
Method
- To make dressing: in a small bowl, whisk together soy sauce, sesame oil, vinegar, salt, and sugar. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, toss together all the rest of the ingredients along with the dressing until well-coated. Serve immediately for best result (so the vegetable stays crunchy and the peanuts don't soften) but I've been known to have a container of this in the fridge for quick dinner too.
