Napa Cabbage Slaw with Miso Peanut Ginger Dressing

October 18th and 19th I attended the School Nutrition Association of Vermont's fall conference.  It is always nice to step away from my children for a couple days and have the opportunity to miss them, plus I got to spend time with a close friend who already works for Burlington School Food Service.  However the highlight was being surrounded by people who are passionate about children and how to feed them.  There is so much press right now about what is wrong with school meals and little understanding of the federal program that funds school lunch and the limitations it has.  Then there is the challenge of making nutritious meals that the kids will actually eat with limited funds.


Before I worked as a lunch room monitor I dreamt of making lunch longer.  Every day my kids would come home carrying most of the lunch they took to school.  However now I know that most students eat their lunch in the first 15 minutes, and as soon as they are done eating the behavior issues begin.  Now my dream is to have a math and science teacher for every school.  Then teachers could have a break while their students were learning math and science, and they could be with their students for lunch and recess.

However this post is not really about what needs to change in lunch, or even ways that innovative food service staff is working to change it already.  Instead this post is about Napa Cabbage and what the $#@%!  I was supposed to do with the one Lewis picked up at the CSA while I was at the conference. Somehow he did not notice what I seem to be happy to bring home and what I only take when there are no other options.  So I was left last week, on the day before my CSA pick up, with a head of Napa Cabbage as the only vegetable option for dinner.  I ended up channeling several Asian slaw recipes, including the ginger carrot dressing I love so much.  The Napa Cabbage Slaw with Miso Peanut Ginger Dressing I made was light and bright with a understated richness from the peanut butter.  Sebastian declared to his brother, who was stubbornly refusing to eat it, "You should really have some.  Even I like it, and that's saying something."  But Julian stuck to the role reversal and refused a cabbage salad his brother was happily eating.  If you cannot serve peanuts in your house, try it with sun butter or tahini instead.

Napa Cabbage Slaw with Miso Peanut Ginger Dressing

2 Tbsp Ume Plum vinegar (you can sub rice wine vinegar or cider vinegar if you really have to, but the ume plum vinegar is really special)
6 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons white miso
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon mirin
1 - 1 1/2 Tbsps finely chopped peeled fresh ginger
1 Tbsp smooth peanut butter (sub sun butter or tahini if there are any allergy issues)
2 -3 small to medium carrots (about 4 1/2 to 6 oz's)
3 tablespoons grapeseed oil
2 to 3 pound head of cabbage finely shredded (I did not shred the bottom 4 inches and saved them for a stir fry another night)
1 red pepper, seeded and sliced thinly, slices then cut into thirds (optional, I omitted this the second time I made it)

Place the ume plum vinegar, water, miso, sugar, mirin, ginger, peanut butter, carrots, and grape seed oil in a quart jar and blend until smooth with an Immersion Blender or puree in a mini food processor or blender.  Pour the dressing on the shredded cabbage and red peppers.  Mix well and serve.

Red Cabbage Salad with Carrot Ginger Dressing

Today's outside temperature briefly reached a balmy 0° F (that is - 18° in C).  My car has a thick layer of snow on the floor mats that warms up enough to vaporize and then freeze on the inside of the windshield.  Every car trip starts with scraping off the ice while my boys happily shout, "It's snowing in the car!"  Somehow the coldest days of a Vermont winter are also the most sunny and beautiful.  You look outside and think, "The weather report must be wrong, it can't really be that cold.  Look at how sunny and bright it is."  Then you step outside and your boogers freeze.

Today when we wanted to entice Sebastian and Julian outside along with their friends across the street, Ada and Ezra, we promised them a show.  I tossed boiling water in the air where it instantly vaporized sending out a cloud of steam.  We drained a kettle of water and all discovered the beauty of this cold day.  It might have been cold but it still took several minutes for our boogers to freeze.  Here is a video of our science experiment, if you live where it gets very cold I recommend you try this at home.

Sometimes in winter I crave something different, a dish with a fresh bright taste that allows you to look forward to spring and all the vivid flavors it brings.  The other week I made the carrot ginger dressing I discovered last spring and we used it to dress shredded cabbage.  Lewis, Julian and I each ate huge mounds of it.  Sebastian declined, despite his recent love of soy braised cabbage and creamy red cabbage with mustard and fennel seeds, he still thinks of himself as a cabbage hater.

I found myself craving it again today to go with the bright clear sunshine outside, and the freezing cold temperatures.  I figured out how to make it with an immersion blender as well, which I love for its easy clean up (plus I broke my mini food processor).

Carrot Ginger Dressing

1 large carrot (3 - 4 oz's), coarsely chopped
1 - 2 Tbsp coarsely chopped fresh ginger (we seem to prefer 1 Tbsp but make it to your taste)
1 Tbsp sweet white or awase miso
2 Tbsp rice wine vinegar (today I ran out of rice wine vinegar and used champagne vinegar)
1 Tbsp roasted sesame oil
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp water

To make using an immersion blender (directions for blender of mini food processor below).  Place carrots, ginger, miso, vinegar and sesame oil in a pint sized wide mouth jar or 2 cup glass measuring cup (or similarly sized container).  Blend until finely chopped and blended.  Add the olive oil and water a tablespoon at a time, blending well after each addition.  Add more water if you want a thinner consistency.

To  make using a blender or mini food processor; pulse the carrots and ginger in a blender or mini food processor until finely chopped, scraping down the sided as needed. Add the miso, rice wine vinegar and sesame oil and blend until well combined. Add the extra virgin olive oil and water in a slow stream while the motor is running.   Add more water if you want a thinner consistency.

Serve on the salad or vegetables of your choice, shredded cabbage is a wonderful winter choice.

Wild Rice Tabouli Salad (Gluten Free)

This dish came about because of my children, not because it is one of those dishes I knew they would love.  Quite the opposite, I made this dish fully aware that it will be several years before either of my boys decides to eat this.  However thanks to them and their pickiness I had 2 cups of leftover rice in the fridge.  I committed the cardinal parenting sin of preparing a new type of rice, which both boys immediately refused to eat.  I wasn't worried about it, they made do with the other options for dinner as Lewis and I happily ate the volcano rice, enjoying the different grains each with its own taste and texture.  For the record, the second time I made the rice they liked it, which was faster then I was expecting.


The idea to use the leftovers in Tabouli salad came when I was picking herbs at my CSA on one of the many oppressively humid, hot days this summer that has been making everyone cranky and squinty.  The herb field has zero shade and the curly parsley was the first parsley I came to.  Standing in the parsley patch I quickly decided to make tabouli for dinner, as a sudden tasty sounding way to excuse picking curly when I usually prefer flat leaf.  Now it wasn't laziness, it was a meal plan.


Once I decided not to use the traditional bulgur wheat base (or the boxed mix my mother relied on) I decided to play a little by adding toasted hazelnuts. The resulting salad was light, flavorful and delicious, enough so that I made it again 3 days later, even though I no longer had any tomatoes.  The second time around I gave the leftovers to one of my neighbors, who requested the recipe when he returned my dish.  Then told me to start typing when I told him I planned to post it here.

Wild Rice Tabouli Salad (or should that be Tabbouleh?)


Most of the vegetables are listed as optional because I don't want you to put off making it because you are missing some of the vegetables listed.  Just chop and add in whatever vegetables you have so there is more texture and flavors in the salad


2 cups cooked rice, preferably a wild rice blend or other whole grain rice (I used volcano rice)
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (if you put  your lemons in the microwave on high for 50 seconds first you will get more juice)
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp sea salt or kosher salt (if your rice is not already salted increase salt to 1 tsp)
1/2 cup finely chopped curly parsley (it is really important to finely chop the parsley)
2 - 3 Tbsp finely chopped fresh mint leaves
1 cup chopped fresh tomatoes (optional)
1 cucumber peeled, cut lengthwise into 4 pieces and then seeds removed, chopped (optional)
1/2 cup hazelnuts briefly toasted in a dry skillet until fragrant and then coarsely chopped
1 red, yellow or orange pepper seeded and chopped (optional)
1/2 cup chopped scallions or baby onions chopped fine
freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese (optional)




Mix all the ingredients and stir well.  Top with feta if using. Either serve immediately or allow the flavors to mellow and blend in the fridge for half an hour first.

Ginger Carrot Dressing

There are signs of spring everywhere right now. On any given day you can see people outside wearing everything from down parkas to shorts and tank tops, at the same time. After months of being wrapped up tight in winter clothing Vermonters vary in how they think it is best to face spring weather. In my garden my asparagus and rhubarb are slowly emerging to give me hope that that there will be fresh produce soon. In addition my apricot stick has flowers that my boys and I are envisioning as future apricots. Sebastian was wishing each flower will become 10 apricots (okay I admit it, I would love that as well). One day I know the stick will grow up to be a tree which bears fruit, for now however it is best described as a stick.

Then there are the spring time conversations of Sebastian and Julian. "Mama, we caught an ant. We are going to keep him as a pet until he is big and fat. Then we are going to feed him to the chickens. Isn't he cute?" This was closely followed by Julian calling out excitedly, "Sebastian, Sebastian, I found more ants climbing up the wall." And then my children were the proud owners of a whole collection of ants. Somehow I fail to greet the yearly influx of ants in my ancient house with as much joy as my five and seven year old boys do.

However even with all this and the happy cooks on other food blogs basking in the joy of local spring foods such as rhubarb, asparagus, nettles and ramps, I still have carrots from my winter CSA and not many local fresh vegetables to play with. So when I stumbled across a mention of Gyneth Paltrow's Carrot Ginger Dressing in the comments of another blog I tried it immediately. The dressing turns out to be the origins of the bright orange one I have been served in many Japanese restaurants. Only this one is better, fresher and more real tasting. The flavor is still hard to pinpoint as the one in the restaurant is.

The only problem I had with it was the shallot, which imparted that old onion flavor to the after taste. I tried many solutions, reducing the quantity of shallot, adding a pinch of sugar, and finally marinating the shallot in olive oil. In the end the best solution was also the simplest, I just left it out, which surprisingly had zero negative affect on the overall flavor.

As soon as I made this dressing I knew I was going to share it here, so I called my neighbors to borrow a pretty glass jar to photograph it in. Once I was done taking the photos I returned the jar filled with dressing. It was a, "Thank you for supporting my neuroses gift." After all while we do have an almost communal pantry set up with them, this was clearly just weird. They told me it was really good on top of steamed broccoli, so far we have been enjoying it on salad. Julian loved it in the kitchen, happily dipping in red pepper. However as soon as it made it to the table he was done. This has happened before with both my boys and new foods. I think before dinner is served they are hungry enough to be more open minded. I am confident that one day they will both return to all the dishes they loved in the kitchen.

Carrot Ginger Dressing

Adapted from Gwyneth Paltrow

1 large carrot (3 - 4 oz's), coarsely chopped

1 - 2 Tbsp coarsely chopped fresh ginger (we seem to prefer 1 Tbsp but make it to your taste)

1 Tbsp sweet white or awase miso (I tried to buy white miso at my local asian market but the owner did not know as he is not a cook, he told me he just stocks what his customers request. I bought the awase, which turns out is a blend of white and red miso).

2 Tbsp rice wine vinegar

1 Tbsp roasted sesame oil

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 Tbsp water

Pulse the carrots and ginger in a blender or mini food processor until finely chopped, scraping down the sided as needed. Add the miso, rice wine vinegar and sesame oil and blend until well combined. Add the extra virgin olive oil and water in a slow stream while the motor is running. Serve on the salad or vegetables of your choice.

Pineapple Watermelon Avocado and Feta Salad with Basil

I spent a lot of time since I discovered the featured ingredients in this weeks battle pondering the flavor options. I decided not to do any of the standard dishes with basil and pineapple, so no pizza, fried rice, South East Asian or salsa. I briefly flirted with the idea of a basil ice cream with pineapple chunks mixed in. My boys originally loved the ice cream idea until they really heard that I said basil ice cream. Then they encouraged me to go with another idea. Even though both boys will happily eat basil right off the plant.

When my mother was still alive she used to make an excellent flank steak marinated with soy sauce, sherry and dried herbs. I have no clue what cook book that recipe was from nor do I know what the ratios are that she used. However I have been making my own variations for over 20 years now. Mine is an ever changing recipe which can change based on my current mood and what goodies I find in the fridge (there was a memorable version where I included jam that was taking up room in my fridge). When I make it I often include orange juice as one of the ingredients.

So for the first dish in battle pineapple basil I decided to make a marinated flank steak with fresh pineapple juice and basil. The only trick would be actually paying attention to and recording the ingredients and their quantities.

As an accompaniment to the steak I thought about making a green papaya salad with pineapple. However that was clearly a South East Asian inspired recipe and perhaps it is not in good form to use a blog post from a judge as a spring board. However I still liked the idea of a salad that nudges the pineapple into the savory side. So I decided on a grilled pineapple salad with feta and basil. My inspiration for this salad came from a watermelon feta salad recipe from last summers Edible Boston. I have never made it but it has been on my to try list for a while and I have really enjoyed the other recipes I have tried by its creator.

I decided to grill the pineapple to sweeten it and mellow the acidity. The original salad called for mint so I decided I would include mint with the basil in my pineapple version. When I was still talking out my ideas with another foodie friend she said I should use purple basil in the salad for looks and then let me raid her garden for the basil.

So how did the pineapple and basil dishes turn out? The flank steak was excellent, as it always is through all the permutations I have made over the years. The interesting thing was the marinade did not taste right until I added the basil. Usually I don't use either pineapple or basil in this dish but the pineapple really needed the basil to balance its acidity and sharp flavor. However I don't think the steak was any better then the other versions. Just another example of delicious flank steak.

The pineapple salad I ended up with however was just what I wanted. Although there was a small problem where I grilled the pineapple, dressed the salad and discovered that the grilled pineapple did not have the clean flavor that I wanted. To be honest I hated the taste. Happily I had not added/wasted the feta cheese yet. So at 5:30 p.m. I ran out to the store to get another pineapple, a watermelon and avocado. My neighbors who were coming over for dinner at 6 were only slightly confused to see me running off.

The end result was worth the second trip to the store and the running around crazily to get dinner on the table. The watermelon, feta and avocado all melt in your mouth but they still have different textures and ways of melting. The pineapple, the star ingredient, retains its bite and gives you something to chew and the basil really brought all the flavors together. In the final salad I did not use the mint as its inclusion also seemed off in the grilled version. The flavor was really clean and light, partially because I realized when making the grilled version that I did not want any olive oil in the dressing, only lime juice. Everyone who tried the salad loved it. For the record nobody under the age of 8 had any. But our neighbor Ada, who is 8 loved it. My children and her brother refused to even try it, that's okay, Ada ate their share.

The salad and the steak worked really wonderfully together. A nice combination of textures and flavors. I also made a potato salad that I was tempted to add basil and pineapple to. I decided that would have been overkill. My neighbors also brought over kid friendly potatoes with butter and parsley and zucchini and squash sauteed with onions. Thomas is founder and co-owner of Arethusa collective farm in the Intervale, so I consider myself lucky that they brought over a modest bowl full of zucchini instead of filling my car with 500 pounds of it. Maybe it is still early in the season for that, I must remember to keep my car locked though.

Pineapple Watermelon Avocado and Feta Salad with Basil

2 cups fresh pineapple chopped into bite sized pieces, about 1/2 to 3/4 inches

2 cups watermelon chopped into cubes about the same size as the pineapple

1 ripe Haas avocado pitted, peeled and cut into bite sized pieces

1 scallion chopped (assuming the scallion is fresh use all of it, pale and dark green)

1 Tbsp chopped fresh basil or more to taste (use purple basil if you can get it)

1 Tbsp fresh lime juice

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

1 cup feta crumbled

Combine all the ingredients except the feta in a serving bowl. Crumble the feta on top and serve. This salad should be served right away.

Pineapple Basil Marinated Flank Steak

1 1/2 cups fresh pineapple juice (although I am sure it would be good with frozen, but this was a competition)

1/2 cup soy sauce

3/4 cup dry sherry

1/4 cup real maple syrup

1 Tbsp crushed garlic

2 Tbsp sherry vinegar

1/4 tsp tabasco (optional, or use more if their will be no kids dining with you)

1 tsp deli mustard (dijon would also be good)

1 Tbsp packed basil

1/4 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Freshly Ground Black Pepper to taste

1 flank steak

Combine all the marinade ingredients in a blender and blend until the basil is chopped fine. You can also use a mini food processor and the basil, oil and some of the other liquids if like me you hate cleaning your blender. Place the steak and enough marinade to cover in a non reactive dish and marinate for 2 hours. Do not marinate for too long as the pineapple juice will start to break down the meat. Preheat your grill until hot, place the meat on the grill and turn it to medium high. Grill on the first side for 3 to 5 minutes, turn over and grill until the internal temperature is 120 ° to 135 °, about 3 to 5 minutes longer. Allow to rest for 5 to 10 minutes before slicing thinly on the bias.

Extra marinade can be used to marinate chicken, pork or more steak. It can also be frozen for later use. Now if you will excuse me I am off to read Twilight. I borrowed it last week but I decided that a book that all my friends could not put down would have to wait until after Foodie Fights.