Pickled coleslaw

I made this pickled coleslaw the other day and we enjoyed it with cold roast chicken. It's fresh and crunchy and goes well with the addition of tomato on the side. Yum. I'll make it again.  It's the ideal salad to have at the end of summer when you've had your fill of heavy mayonnaise salads and want a healthy and easy alternative to serve with steak, chicken or fish.  I think it would be an excellent addition to hamburgers and tacos as well.

I used the pickling liquid left in the jar when we finished off our bread and butter cucumbers but you could easily make your dressing from scratch.  There is a recipe below.

Serves four, or two with leftovers

Salad ingredients

¼ white or red cabbage - finely sliced

½ white onion or 6 radishes - finely sliced

¼ capsicum or bell pepper - finely sliced

1 grated carrot 

a few pickled cucumbers - chopped

salt and pepper

Pre-pickling

¼ cup coarse salt

Pickling liquid

½ cup leftover pickling liquid from beetroot, bread and butter cucumbers or gherkins

OR

½ cup good vinegar - I'd use apple cider vinegar or white wine vinegar

1 tablespoon sugar

celery salt and pepper to taste

Before you make up the salad, you have to pretreat the vegetables to remove some of the juices. If you don't do this, the juices will release into the pickling liquid and dilute it. Don't miss this step.

Finely chop and slice all your vegetables and place in a large colinder. Sprinkle coarse salt over the vegetables and, using your clean hands, rub the salt into the vegetables, making sure all of them are covered and well mixed. Leave for an hour over a container or sink.  Juice will run out. After about an hour, thoroughly wash the vegetables to remove all the salt and salty water. Allow to drain for ten minutes.

Then is just a matter of pouring the pickling liquid over the salad ingredients. Leftover salad will keep well in the fridge for a week and it will develop more flavour over that time. Let me know if you try it.