Salad Days: A different way with coleslaw

There’s a shift away from mayonnaise in salads. Potato salads are sometimes made with no mayo at all these days, or a modest amount of it is mixed with other ingredients, such as a botanical vinegar, and olive or peanut oil.

Even coleslaw, which not all that long ago was likely to be awash in mayonnaise, is getting a bit of a rehash as we find alternative ways to make it delicious and desirable while keeping mayo to a minimum or leaving it out altogether.

I’m a fan of a mild mayonnaise – I don’t much like the astringent tanginess of many commercial brands. In fact, I often whip up a simple homemade mayo, which takes barely a minute once you’ve added an egg, a touch of mustard, the juice of half a lemon and seasoning to a deep jug and immersed a handheld stick blender to emulsify with the other ingredients while pouring cooking oil (not olive) in slowly. It’s a minute of kitchen magic.

If you’d like to make your own mayo instead of using a shop-bought one, here’s how:

Use a handheld stick blender and its jug to make the mayonnaise: crack an egg into a deep jug and add 1 Tbsp Hot English mustard, lemon juice, salt and black pepper. Hold a stick blender in one hand and the oil in the other. Pour about 2 cups oil in slowly while immersing the blender, pushing up and down while the oil emulsifies into a mayonnaise. It will take barely a minute. Set aside or refrigerate.

Tony’s coleslaw with bell peppers, spring onion and toasted seeds and peanuts

Ingredients

(Serves 6 to 10 as a side dish)

Coleslaw

Half a green cabbage, shredded

2 large or 3 medium carrots, peeled and grated

1 medium red bell pepper

1 medium yellow bell pepper

3 spring onions, diced, including some of the green part

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp fennel seeds

2 heaped Tbsp of your own, or mild shop-bought mayonnaise

1 Tbsp botanical vinegar

⅓ cup salted peanuts, toasted

Salt and black pepper to taste

Method

Shred half of a standard green cabbage using a sharp knife. Peel and grate the carrots. Slice the red and yellow pepper into julienne strips, then cut them in half. Dice the spring onions.

In a dry pan, toast the fennel and cumin seeds together until golden but not burnt. Then toast the salted peanuts in the same pan until they smell good. Resist the temptation to devour them. (Or accidentally toast too many so you can have a snack.)

Add all of the above ingredients except the toasted seeds and peanuts to a large bowl. Add the mayo and vinegar, season with salt and black pepper, and toss with two wooden spoons or spatulas until everything is coated with the dressing.

Scatter the seeds and peanuts over the top. DM

Tony Jackman is twice winner of the Galliova Food Writer of the Year award.

Follow Tony Jackman on Instagram @tony_jackman_cooks.