Chinese Coleslaw

I had often heard of Chinese Coleslaw, but had never eaten it. Sister Johansen was telling me the other day how very delicious it was and how much she enjoyed it and how popular it was at pot lucks and other get togethers and so I decided to make some for the Halloween party we threw for the kids on Tuesday evening. I found the recipe on Brown Eyed Baker, but there are a bazillion of these same recipes floating around.

It made a nice big bowl of salad. You can't get coleslaw mix around here and so I created my own by thinly slicing white and red cabbage and grating a carrot. Other than that the ingredients are very simple.

I did make a few changes. I used Chinese Rice Wine Vinegar, not white vinegar and I substituted a tablespoon of the oil with toasted sesame oil. It's supposed to be Chinese right? So why not use Chinese vinegar and some sesame oil for more authentic flavours???

I suppose the thinking is that Ramen noodles are Chinese, but if I am not mistaken . . . are they not Japanese? I'm not sure. I only know they add a nice crunch. I also used toasted flaked almonds and I toasted the sunflower seeds for a bit in a dry frying pan to bring out their nuttiness.

It is rather high in fat and calories for a salad however and so I am wondering if I might not be able to reduce them by a great deal if I used 2 parts oil to 1 part water and a sugar substitute or stevia instead of the regular sugar. And in all truth you could probably cut the oil by half anyways, without it causing too much of a problem. There are enough other things in there to give it flavour and if you use part toasted sesame oil, well . . . that gives a whole lot of flavour anyways!

In any case the kids really enjoyed this and I brought home an empty bowl. Result! I had a small portion myself so that I could see what all the fuss was about, and I was pleasantly surprised. It was fabulous! Enjoy!

*Chinese Coleslaw*

Makes 12 to 16 servings

Printable Recipe

I made this to take to a party the other day, adapted from a recipe I found on another blog. I can't believe I had never made this before. It was fabulous! It is rather high in fat however, so I will have to figure out a way to get that down. Also if you substituted it with sugar substitute instead of sugar, that would also make a difference.

2 (16 ounce) bags of coleslaw mix

(I used 1 small head of cabbage, trimmed, cored and thinly sliced,
1 medium carrot, peeled and grated, and 1/4 of a small red cabbage, cored and thinly sliced)

1 bunch of spring onions, trimmed and chopped

170g of toasted flaked almonds (1 cup)

115g of shelled sunflower seeds (1 cup)

2 single serving packages of Ramen type noodles, crushed

For the dressing:

225ml of sunflower or canola oil (1 cup) (Less 1 TBS)

1 TBS toasted sesame oil

90g of caster sugar (1/2 cup)

78ml of chinese rice wine vinegar (1/3 cup)

the two seasoning packets from the noodles

salt and pepper to taste

Put all of the vegetables into a large bowl, along with the nuts, seeds and crushed noodles. Whisk together the dressing ingredients until well blended. Pour over the vegetables in the bowl and toss to coat evenly. Cover and chill until ready to serve.

Note - you could add dried cranberries or chopped dried apple to this and it would be delicious, as would chopped dried apricots and sultanas.