Super Slaw

Although I own every book Dr. Fuhrman has out there, I don't follow his nutritarian food plan, mostly because I have an immense hatred of raw vegetables, especially leafy greens and cruciferous ones. Even cooked, many cruciferous veggies hurt my gums so the only way they get eaten is well-done. I rarely use his recipes because they either contain nuts or dried fruit, 2 items we have to avoid because of my husband's CVD and my high triglycerides.

But while I was reading the Fuhrman forums this morning my husband told me had a yearning for cole slaw for his Labor Day weekend meals, and since I refuse to buy those very-fatty mayo based ones at the deli, I either had to make my own or disappoint the guy. He was looking over my shoulder as I started looking at various cole slaw recipes on Dr. Fuhrman's Member Center recipe section, and this one caught his eye:

Super Slaw
Serves: 3
Preparation Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:
SLAW
2 cups shredded apples
1 cup shredded raw cabbage
1 cup shredded raw beets
1 cup shredded raw carrots
1/2 cup raisins
DRESSING
1/2 cup soft tofu
1/4 cup soy, almond or hemp milk
1 tablespoon Dr. Fuhrman's Riesling Raisin Vinegar
1 tablespoon Dr. Fuhrman's Spicy Pecan Vinegar
3 dates, pitted
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup chopped pecans, lightly toasted *
Instructions:
Combine slaw ingredients. 

Blend dressing ingredients and toss with slaw. Top with toasted pecans.

*Lightly toast pecans in a 200 degree oven for 3 minutes.

Per Serving:
CALORIES 289; PROTEIN 9g; CARBOHYDRATES 50g; TOTAL FAT 9.4g; SATURATED FAT 1g; SODIUM 85mg; FIBER 7.5g; BETA-CAROTENE 3153ug; VITAMIN C 19mg; CALCIUM 210mg; IRON 4mg; FOLATE 83ug; MAGNESIUM 62mg; ZINC 1.2mg; SELENIUM 5.8ug

I sighed and acquiesced to his demands, even though I preferred to look at McDougall recipes, too, before choosing, but he was in a rush to get out so I added a few items needed for this one to my shopping list for our weekly grocery store trip and off we went.

My changes to the recipe:

I used a bag of cole slaw mix, which, when fluffed up, measures around 4-5 cups. I added some shredded carrots to the mix, as some of those commenting on the recipe recommended doing. Because of the excess volume I doubled the dressing ingredients.

I don't own any of Dr. Fuhrman's flavored vinegars, but did manage to grab a fig flavored one at the store. I used that and balsamic, again, as others recommended.

I hate when the type of date isn't specified in a recipe. There's a big difference in size between deglet noor and medjool. I split the difference and used 4 medjool ones, only because they're the oldest in my refrigerator.

Because my husband is a cardiac patient and Dr. Esselstyn advises against them for those people, I skipped the nuts.

Now to put it all together. 

The dry ingredients was easy - pop the slaw into my giant mixing bowl, add the currants, carrots, peel and shred the apples (Hmm, getting a little messy now) and toss them all so everything is well mixed, that the wet apples aren't clumping together (This is getting to be a bit annoying now. They just won't separate!). My husband volunteered to take care of tossing it all so I can work on the dressing.

I recently heard Chef AJ say in a video to pay attention to the texture of the items you need to blend, and blend up hard things with some liquid before adding the softer ingredients, so I took the pits out of my dates and tossed them and the milk in my Ninja together and turned it on. 

What is that ungodly noise?? 

I admit I rarely use dates, and when I do, I just toss the deglet nooor ones in with the other ingredients. This is the first time I'm doing the dates, larger ones at that, first. It sounded like a bunch of marbles were tossed in the blender container! It took a good 2 minutes before they were broken down to itty bitty pieces and small enough for me to add the other ingredients.

It came out really thick, but it all mixed together with the dry ingredients pretty easily, or so said my husband, who was stuck with the task as I cleaned everything up.

I took a taste of a sliver of carrot or two and it was okay, but certainly not anything like deli-bought cole slaw. I'm not a vinegar fan, either, and I'm not too happy with the way this came out. Since we hadn't had any deli salads in many years now, I'm hoping my husband enjoys this healthier way to eat them. He, on the other hand, loves vinegars of all sorts. I realize that today it may not taste all that great and that tomorrow it should taste better. I guess I'll find out in about 23 1/2 hours.

Hope everyone is having a happy Labor Day, and remember that tomorrow starts VeganMoFo, so be sure to check in often in September.