Green Goddess Coleslaw

Happy First Day of Vegan Mofo! For those of you who are not familiar with the Vegan Month of Food (fondly known as Vegan Mofo), this is where bloggers across the world will be devoting themselves to posting one new vegan recipe each weekday in September. This is, without saying, going to be extremely challenging- especially for a new food blogger like myself- but I am going to give it my all. Pinky promise.

Many Vegan Mofo bloggers choose a theme for their posts. Mine will be... *drumroll, please*...salads! 

I chose this theme because I feel like a stereotype of the vegetarian / vegan lifestyle is that we just eat rabbit food. While yes, I do love myself some baby carrots and celery, a girl needs a bit more. I've observed over the years that the salads I traditionally make myself for lunch are much heartier than what traditionally come to mind for many people, as they are a.) twice the size of my head, and b.) full of protein and healthy fats. I hope to use this theme to remove the dread that comes to mind for some when they think of the word "salad". 

A salad isn't just iceburg lettuce, a few shredded carrots, and goopy bottled Italian dressing. You can dress it up any way your heart desires; it is a blank canvas. In addition to making green salads (i.e. ones with lettuce / spinach), I have taken a broad usage of the term salad, and have been whipping up ones with beans, grains, and cooked veggies alike. I cannot wait to share with you all of the different, zesty combos I have been creating over these past few weeks. Get ready for a belly full of veggies! 

I thought I would start off the festivities with this Green Goddess Coleslaw. Why? Because it seems very fitting for this end-of-summer territory we are upon. You might still have a a barbecue or outdoor shindig to attend, and this colorful, crunchy slaw will be a welcome addition to the picnic table. 

It contains royally purple cabbage, sweet red pepper, cooling cucumber, and some spicy serrano pepper slices, to taste. The slaw is tossed with a garlicky and vegan take on the traditional Green Goddess. This dressing is, of course, vegan. I have adapted it from the wonderful Angela Liddon.

The boyfriend and I whipped this up as an accompaniment to our "bbq" night. I put it in quotes because neither of us have a grill, but we do have a bottle of barbeque sauce. That counts, right? We enjoyed it with barbeque tempeh (well, me, anyway- meat for him), cornbread, corn on the cob, and sliced heirloom tomatoes with olive oil and salt. I have been eating my weight in heirlooms (and spending all of my monies on them, silent weep. I'm looking at you, two-pounders!). 

Feel free to sub your favorite veggie for the red pepper or cucumber. Carrots would be lovely. And of course, if you actually want this slaw to be green, using a green cabbage is all but brilliant.

The only thing that may be a bit limiting is that you pretty much need a food processor with a shredder attachment to make this. You are probably able to with a Vitamix if you follow the water chop method for the cabbage, and you may be able to with mandolin of sorts. However, I did it with a food processor and it was super quick. Let me know in the comments if you try any other methods!

Green Goddess Coleslaw
Serves 6-8 as a side, 3-4 as a main(see note below)

Ingredients

Salad:

• 1/2 medium head of red cabbage
• 1/2 large red bell pepper
• 1/2 cucumber
• 1 spring onion, sliced
• minced chili pepper, to taste (see note)
• 1/2 tsp salt

Dressing:

• 1 large clove or 2 small cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/2 medium avocado
• 5 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp tahini
• 3/4 cup basil
• 3/4 cup spring onions (chopped into 2 inch pieces for measuring) 
• 4 tbsp water
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1 tsp dijon mustard
• 1 tsp salt

Directions:

1. Shred the red cabbage, cucumber,and red pepper using the food processor with the shredder attachment. Empty them into a large bowl. Slice the single spring onion (green onion) and toss in half. Reserve half for later. Stir in minced chili pepper.
2. Rinse out the food processor. Toss in all dressing ingredients and blend until smooth. 
3. Combine the dressing with the veggies. Add the remaining 1/2 tsp salt and mix. Garnish with remaining chopped green onion.

Notes: I used about 1/3 of a serrano pepper, but  you can feel free to use some jalapeno for a milder heat, Thai chili pepper for a more intense heat, or your chili pepper of choice. 
If you have a ton of leftovers (or if you are like lil' ol' me and just have this mouth to feed), feel free to serve yourself up a heaping portion, toss in some lentils or beans of choice, and mix in some quinoa or brown rice. Bam. An easy and filling lunch or dinner.