Light Coleslaw

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In the past, we explained how to make the best Cole Slaw that we’ve ever eaten. It is really good, primarily because of the cup of homemade mayonnaise. You might think, of course, there’s mayonnaise and that can’t be too bad for you, but when you scratch a batch of mayonnaise, you realize that it’s mostly oil. So, that cup of mayonnaise contains about a cup of oil. No wonder it’s good; it contains a billion calories. Tonight, we wanted something a bit lighter, so we came up with our version of a Light Cole Slaw that only uses a bit of oil, and still tastes great!

For this slaw, we used the idea of making a sauce for the Cole slaw by simmering vinegar and pickling spice together; we think it makes for a better flavor. And, if you compare this recipe to the original, you’ll see that they have a lot in common.

Light Cole Slaw

Servings: 6
Author: Shawn

Ingredients

  • 1/4 cup white vinegar
  • 1 1/2 tsp pickling spice
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1 tsp kosher salt
  • 1/2 head cabbage shredded
  • 2 medium carrots grated
  • 1/2 cup raisins
  • 1 tsp celery seeds
  • 2 tsp olive oil

Instructions

  • In a small saucepan over high heat, combine vinegar and pickling spice, and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and let steep for 5 minutes.
  • Strain vinegar into a small bowl containing sugar and salt. Stir to combine.
  • In a large bowl, combine the cabbage, carrots, celery seed, and raisins. Drizzle with vinegar sauce and the olive oil. Stir to combine. Cover and refrigerate to let marinade about an hour.

Ingredient discussion:

For the vinegar, just use plain old store brand vinegar. In this dish, the vinegar is there to provide tartness, which, along with the sugar, will make a sweet and sour flavor, so you don’t need anything special. For the raisins, we try to use the organic variety; they aren’t too much more expensive, and we can avoid some pesticides. Same with the carrots. Cabbage, we get through the CSA, so that’s naturally grown, too.

Procedure in detail:

Infuse vinegar. In a small saucepan over high heat, combine vinegar and pickling spice and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and let steep for 5 minutes.

making cole slaw sauce
Strain the infused vinegar right into the sugar and salt. We used a small measuring cup to make it easy to pour later.

Make sauce. Strain vinegar into a small bowl containing sugar and salt. Stir to combine. Discard pickling spice.

Cole slaw ingredients
In a large bowl, mix together the carrots, cabbage, raisins and celery seed. The raisins and celery seed make for a more varied slaw than just carrots and cabbage.

Make slaw. In a large bowl, combine the cabbage, carrots, celery seed, and raisins. Drizzle with vinegar sauce and the olive oil. Stir to combine. Cover and refrigerate to let marinade about an hour.

cole slaw
Cole slaw is always a nice summer treat, and this one without mayonnaise might be even better suited for picnics.

Serve and enjoy.

We really like the way this slaw turned out. It was as good as those with mayonnaise, but, at the same time, it was a bit lighter. If we were to change anything for next time, we might reduce the about of sugar by just a bit so we would end up with slaw that is slightly more tart. If you try that, let us know what you think. Fives all the way!

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