Cabbage salad - 3 way !

Dear Foodies,

Spring arrived here with a sudden peak in temperatures a couple of weeks back and its funny that as I am writing this post the temperatures have dipped again and the cold weather outside is unbearable. Not because the temperatures are so low, but because the mind has lost its tolerance towards it. It wasn't expecting this bout of cold air for another 6-7 months :-(

Have you guys heard of this fast food place called Gold Star chilli....its a Cincinnati based restaurant chain and well, is located only in the tristate area. They hardly have anything vegetarian in there, but I came up with this combo that I liked very much when in the Univ. It had red kidney beans cooked rajma-style, topped with onions with hot sauce, crackers and a wedge of lime. But this was not a usual combo offered by them. They would have these 1-way, 2-way and 3-way chilli combo's where 1 was for beans, 2 for cheese and 3 for onions and the default being chilli in all of them. I would call mine a '3-way veggie chilli with no cheese' and they would get totally confused :D

The guy who actually plated the food new what I wanted due to sheer repetition, but the ppl at the counter would be different every single time. So the moment I went to their store, this guy would have the food ready but the person at the counter would still be debating about the cost :D I paid a different amount every time I ate there I think! One would ask me to call it a '2 way with onions, no cheese', and the other would christen it a '3 way veggie without cheese' and I would try remembering who said what so I wouldn't have to go thru the whole explanation every single time :D

So back to the salad, my way! Last weekend we had pretty good weather, and I was in no mood of eating anything hot. I was also in a cabbage eating mood all of last week and had a raw salad once during the week. I tried out another version of it and tossed in some quinoa to make a really tasty and quick meal.


Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups: Cabbage, Shredded or thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup: Carrots, thinly sliced
• 1/2 nos: Bell pepper, thinly sliced
• 1 nos: small Onion, thinly sliced (I had tiny white onions, but would have preferred red ones)
  
• 1/2 slab: packaged Silken firm Tofu, cut into thick matchsticks
• 2 nos: Spring onions, chopped (green and white portion)

for the dressing:

• 1 Tbsp: Tamari/Soy sauce
• 1 tsp: Tobasco
• 1 tsp: toasted Sesame oil
• 1 tsp: Honey
• 1 tsp: Red wine Vinegar (or any vinegar)
• 1 tsp: Thai green curry paste
  
• 1/2 Tbsp: Olive oil

for the garnish:

• 1 Tbsp: Sesame seeds
• 1 Tbsp: slivered Almonds
• Salt and pepper to taste

Optionals:

• 1 cup: Quinoa, cooked as per instructions
• Lettuce leaves
• Wanton wrappers
  

Method:

1. Spray a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil with some oil and line the tofu sticks. Broil them on low for 6-8mins until they start turning a little golden around the edges.
2. Toast the sesame seeds and almonds, either on the stove top or in the microwave.
   
3. Whisk all the dressing ingredients together and adjust the individual amounts to your taste.
4. Next toss in the veggies and coat well with the dressing and check for seasonings. Add the tofu sticks and load up your salad bowl, topping it off with the sesame seeds and almonds OR add some quinoa, check for seasonings, toss them well for a tasty quinoa salad OR fill some crunchy lettuce leaves with the salad and make lettuce cups OR use the salad as a filling and make potstickers like so.

You could add other veggies you have in hand and play around with the ingredients to suit your palate.

There you go, you have three different dishes from the same salad, and all of them are super easy and flavorful :) ...


...and you also have three pics of the salad with 3 different backgrounds. So which one do you like better ??


Confession # The chopsticks are only for the camera, I tried eating with it and could hardly get any of the salad into my mouth with them :))

Happy Wednesday!