How to Make Coleslaw Awesome, Not Disgusting

Coleslaw is one of those dishes that evaded my understanding for a long time. A pile of shredded cabbage drenched (sopping, in fact) in mayonnaise, flavorless, textureless, and mushy? Mm, sign me up. No wait, keep that as far away from me as possible. No, I don’t want it on the side of my sandwich, or my fried chicken, or anywhere in my immediate or not-so-immediate vicinity.

I’ve increasingly been suspecting, though, that not all coleslaws are created equal, and that coleslaw can, in fact, be not only palatable, but delicious — crispy, refreshing, bursting with flavor. I’ve been seeing it on a lot of sandwiches lately, in its not so mayonnaisy, greasy form. And so, recently, I have decided to give coleslaw a second chance. And it has been revelatory.

Coleslaw is awesome! Or at least, this coleslaw is awesome. It combines 2 different cabbages (red and green) with carrots and corn kernels, for lots of different colors and textures and tastes. And, equally importantly, its dressing doesn’t taste like you just dumped a jar of mayo on all your hard-shredded veggies and called it a day. Yes, there is mayo in the dressing. But there is also lime juice and vinegar and hot sauce and all kinds of other strange alchemy that produces a sweet-sour-spicy sauce in just enough quantity to cover, but not drench, the cabbage, etc.

The night I made this, I served it with a chipotle-rubbed steak and grilled avocados (more on that later). The next day, it was recycled as a topping in scrumptious pork tacos — soft tortilla, leftover pork tenderloin chunks, salsa, and — since we were lacking hot sauce — sriracha (which I think may be even better than Cholula in taco-land).

This will keep for a few days; things will get a bit soggy, but because the dressing is so much lighter than commercial coleslaw, it will still taste fine.

Awesome, Semi-Spicy Coleslaw

Adapted from License to Grill, by Chris Schlesinger and John Willoughby

Makes a good-sized bowl of coleslaw (for 4-6 people), but you may want to double the recipe depending on how large the heads of cabbage you had to buy are, and how adept you are with other cabbage uses.

Ingredients

- ½ cup mayonnaise (I used jarred to fine effect, but you can also use homemade)

- 1/3 cup olive oil

- 1/3 cup fresh lime juice (from about 2 large limes)

- ¼ cup distilled white vinegar (recipe called for red wine vinegar, but we only had white, you can use either)

- 2 tbsp. Sugar

- 2 tbsp. Ketchup

- 10 or so dashes hot sauce, preferably Cholula or Tapatio

- salt and freshly ground black pepper

- 2 cups shredded green cabbage

- 1 cup shredded red cabbage

- 1 cup shredded carrots (1-2 carrots)

- 2 ears of corn, husked

1. Prep the veggies:

- Here’s a how-to on shredding cabbage.

- To “shred” carrots, I just grated them, which I thought was easiest.

- After you’ve husked the corn, either steam or boil it briefly (about 2 minutes) just so it softens up a bit. Remove from heat and cut kernels away (I find a bread knife is easiest for this).

2. Make the dressing:

- Combine first seven ingredients (mayo through hot sauce) in a small bowl. Whisk to blend. Add salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste (it should be a little spicy, but not overwhelming, with touches of sweetness and acidity).

3. Combine everything in a big bowl! Enjoy coleslaw, possibly for the first time ever.