This spring/summer salad is a favourite at our house. It features two powerful members of the cruciferous family – cabbage and broccoli.
It makes a ton but it always gets eaten. If there are any leftovers it still tastes great the next day.
125 g (¼ lb or 4 oz) uncooked whole wheat pasta or Barilla Plus
4 cups (1 L) shredded red cabbage, approx ½ a cabbage
1 large carrot, unpeeled, grated
1 red pepper, shredded or sliced thinly
4 cups (1 L) broccoli florets, about 1 bunch of broccoli
Dressing:
¼ cup (60 mL) natural crunchy peanut butter, it has to be natural
2 tbsp (30 mL) rice vinegar, no sodium or sugar added
2 tbsp (30 mL) water
2 tbsp (30 mL) lower sodium soy sauce
2 tbsp (30 mL) liquid honey
1 tbsp (15 mL) chili garlic sauce
2 tbsp (30 mL) lime juice
Topping:
¼ cup (60 mL) peanuts
Optional Toppings:
1 cup (250 mL) chopped fresh cilantro
1 green onion, chopped
- Cook pasta according to the package directions.
- While the pasta is cooking shred the cabbage, grate the carrot, and thinly slice the red pepper. If you have a food processor you are laughing!
- Cut the broccoli florets from the stalks. Save stalks for soups or crudités.
- Cut the florets into small pieces. The pieces should be small enough to pop into your mouth without getting a yellow card (soccer reference) for unsportsmanlike conduct, i.e. chewing with your mouth open because the pieces are too big. Put all the veggies into a large bowl. Toss and set aside.
- Make the dressing. Basically measure out peanut butter, rice vinegar, water, soy sauce, honey, chili garlic sauce and the lime juice into a medium bowl and whisk till blended.
- Pour the dressing over the veggies. By this time the spaghetti should be cooked. Drain. Add to the veggies and toss until everything is well coated with the dressing.
- Refrigerate till well chilled. Either 3 hours or up to overnight.
- At serving time, divide the salad equally between 4 plates or Asian style deep bowls and sprinkle each serving with 1 tbsp (15 mL) peanuts. If you decided to go with the Asian flavours sprinkle each with ¼ cup (60 mL) of the cilantro and ¼ of the green onion.
Makes – 8 cups (2 L)
One serving = 2 cups (500 mL)
One serving contains: 343 Calories, 12.2 g Total Fat, 1.6 g Sat Fat, 0 g Trans Fat, 369 mg Sodium, 51.4 g Carbs, 10 g Fibre, 17.2 g Sugar, 13 g Protein
Diabetes Food Choice Values
Each serving contains: 3 carbohydrate choices, 2.5 fats choices, 2 protein choices
Kid Friendly Tip
If your kids aren’t into spicy, omit the garlic chili sauce. At serving time, dish theirs out and then add the chili garlic sauce to the rest. Toss well and serve to the adults.
My son has been eating spicy foods since he was seven years old. So don’t give up. Offer them some of the spicy version. One day they may just surprise you and ask for it, it could happen, the older I get the more I believe in food miracles.