How to Make Cabbage Slaw with Your Grandmother

I have a mystery for you to help me solve. Every kid I know shutters at the thought of green vegetables, me included. But somehow, I actually really like the taste of this cabbage slaw recipe. How did our Meema do it?

Grandparents Make You Eat Vegetables:

We were lucky enough to have our Meema staying with us this past week. She is one of the best cooks we know, so we love making new recipes with her.

But this time, she threw us a curve-ball. Instead of making something sweet, she was on a mission to find a vegetable side dish that we would enjoy. Even though we told her how unlikely this was, she insisted that we should try a cabbage slaw.

Tips For Cooking with a Grandparent:

• First, always try to make something messy that your Mom would say no to. This is why we experimented with making pliable sweet pastry shells the last time she was here. This was a bit messy, but so much fun.

• Try to keep them calm when you pick up a knife. Every time we try to chop something, the words of caution inevitably come out.

• Trust their judgment. When Meema told us that we would like this crunchy slaw, we were more than skeptical. But as it turns out, Grandmothers know a thing or two.

Don’t cut yourself! Be extra careful!

Every Grandmother While Cooking with Kids

Starting with Fresh Cabbage:

It was tempting to buy the pre-cut cabbage for this recipe. I am sure it would work also, but cutting up a fresh cabbage made this slaw so crunchy!

But who knew cabbage could be so hard to cut? Now granted, we did get the biggest head of cabbage that I have ever seen, but still! I took out Mom’s huge knife, to the horror of my Meema, and started at it.

When this didn’t work, I ended up cutting like a sweet potato. I got the knife stuck in the middle and started pounding it on the cutting board over and over until it broke in half. I thought Meema was going to pass out with fear.

Once it was cut in half, I started slicing it as thin as I could, making sure to keep my fingers out of the way. I didn’t have much choice, as Meema was repeating her directions to be careful about every five seconds.

Making the Dressing:

Once we had about ten cups of slaw, we started on the dressing. I think Meema had had it with me and that big knife and she took over dicing up the red onion. There is no way that I will ever complain about passing off the chore of cutting up an onion!

While we waited for the flavors in the dressing to mix, I worked on adding the cranberries and nuts to the slaw.

This original recipe only called for almonds, but since we only had about half of what we needed, we ended up adding some walnuts too. I am so glad we did! It added a lot of flavor.

Plating the Cabbage Slaw:

One thing our Meema loves is to make food pretty. So we decided to use the leaves on the bottom of the salad bowl. It made this extra fancy.

We are not sure how she did it, but our Meema successfully helped us find a way to enjoy a green vegetable. Grandmothers are mysteries.