(Dairy Free, Meat Free) I got a gorgeous head of red cabbage in my Kent Veg Box, and it put me in the mood for my mom’s Napa Cabbage Salad recipe that I grew up on. The only problem was that although the recipe was delicious, it lacked much nutritional value (outside the cabbage) and had loads of sugar in the dressing. So, I’ve mixed it up a bit by using honey and adding quinoa/apple. You could also add grated carrot if you want to get more vegetables involved as well!

Ingredients for Salad

• 1 head of napa cabbage (I used red cabbage instead), chopped or shredded
• 185 grams (1 cup) cooked quinoa
• 2 large apples, chopped
• 1 red onion (or 3 green/spring onions), chopped
• 2 packs of ramen (noodles only), broken
• 110 grams (1 cup) slivered almonds
• 2 tbsp sesame seeds
• 2 tbsp olive oil

Ingredients for Dressing

• 4 tbsp (1/4 cup) red wine vinegar (or cider vinegar)
• 180 ml (3/4 cup) olive oil
• 4 tbsp honey (or if vegan use sugar)
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp toasted sesame oil

Directions

1. Chop/shred head of cabbage and put into large bowl. Add quinoa and apples.
2. Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in frying pan and cook chopped onion for 3-5 minutes or until soft. Or, use fresh green/spring onions instead and skip this part.
3. Throw onions into cabbage, quinoa and apple medley and mix. Cover and refrigerate until ready to add dressing.
4. Add broken ramen noodles, almonds and sesame seeds to used frying pan and heat until toasted. Make sure to stir often and watch these closely. They can quickly burn if you’re not careful! Set aside.
5. Throw dressing ingredients in a jar and shake until mixed. If using sugar instead of honey, put all ingredients into a saucepan and boil for about 1 minute to dissolve sugar.
6. Pour dressing over cabbage, quinoa, apple, onion medley and mix. It’s best if you let this set for 15 minutes in the fridge until you serve so that the dressing can soak in a bit.
7. Top salad with toasted ramen, almond, sesame seeds and serve. If you are not serving right away, don’t top the dressed salad with the noodle mixture because it will get soggy.

Tip: We generally ate this salad in the summer, but I couldn’t help myself when I saw the beautiful cabbage come through my veg box! If you don’t eat this as a main course, you can definitely serve it as a side to some other Asian dish.