Slaw the easiest way to max out your veg intake and brighten your meals

I can’t believe it has taken me this long to add a slaw recipe to my site. Although I did make this video a couple of years back. It is probably the side dish I reach for most, and often becomes the base of my lunch or dinner. I think the reason I’ve never added it before is because I so rarely make it the same way twice. So many of you have asked for a recipe though so here we go.

The different ways I make slaw part of my meals

I love slaw for its ability to brighten up a meal, serving it with a gutsy meat or veggie stew brings contrast of texture, flavour, colour and temperature – all the things that make a meal more delicious and balanced. I also love it as a hearty veg-packed lunch, often I’ll make myself a big batch of undressed slaw, keep it in the fridge and grab some out each day for 3 days. Then I can dress it with a different dressing each day (to avoid groundhog lunch syndrome), add leftover meat or fish, avocado, seeds or a can of tuna and I’m good to go.

This is nothing like bought coleslaw

A slaw is, of course, just a short, some may say lazy, name for coleslaw. I choose the shortened name, in part, to distance this from that horrible supermarket stuff, the only coleslaw I knew as a child. The bought stuff has a dressing that manages at once to be both overly sweet and overly sharp, and always has so much raw onion. I hate raw onion with a passion. My slaw will never contain raw onion but is always jam-packed with colourful, crunchy veg and a dressing that I can adjust to suit the occasion.