Oriental Cabbage Salad

This is a summer staple recipe around my home.

It's delicious, easy, beautiful to serve to guests, versatile, and packed full of veggis!

This salad can be a side dish or a main dish by adding grilled chicken

(or whatever sounds good to you).

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Recipe

From the crisper:

• 1 head green cabbage, chopped really fine (or the same amount of coleslaw mix)
• 6 green onions sliced fine

I also like to add:

• Add 1 head of romaine lettuce (reduce cabbage to half of the above amount)
• 1 red sweet bell pepper, sliced in long thin strips
• around 1 cup of sugar snap peas
• 2-3 stalks of celery sliced on the diagonal
• 1 cucumber sliced in long thin strips
• and sometimes... a can of drained mandarin oranges

From the pantry:

• 1 package of ramen noodles (the original recipe calls for chicken flavor, but I like to use the oriental flavor... I think any flavor will work)
• 1/4 cup toasted sesame seeds
• 1/4 cup toasted almonds
• 1/4 cup toasted whole flax seeds (my addition)

For the dressing: Sometimes I double this... just to keep some in the fridge for other salads because it's so yummy.

• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup rice vinegar (you can use white vinegar, but it has a stronger vinegar-ey bite to it than the rice vinegar... which is pretty mellow)
• 3/4 cup salad oil... like canola (I only use 1/2 c. to 2/3 c. or it gets too oily for me)
• 1 T. sesame oil (this makes the dressing... I usually double this amount)
• 1 T. Accent (this is msg... you can use table salt but decrease to 1/2 T. and then adjust to your own preference)
• 1 t. black pepper
• 1 seasoning packet from the above mentioned Ramen Noodle package.

Pour it all together in a jar with a lid and shake well.

If you want to make this salad a main dish, double or triple the dressing recipe and pour half of it over 4 to 6 chicken breasts and allow to marinate for several hours. Remove chicken from marinade and grill over low heat until no longer pink, and juices run clear. Slice in thin strips and set aside.

Mix all of the crisper ingredients together in a large bowl.

If your seeds and almonds didn't come toasted, you can toast them yourself in a skillet over med/low heat... watching them constantly (I can't tell you how often I have to throw a batch out because I walk away for 2 seconds and they burn :) just until they turn golden. Cool, and set aside.

Crush the ramen noodles and set aside.

Immediately before serving, toss all of the above ingredients (except the chicken, if your using it) with the dressing until it is all uniformly coated, and serve.

If your adding the chicken, plate each serving of salad and top with the sliced chicken along the center of the salad. You don't have to do this... you could toss the chicken with the rest of the salad, but it's so pretty to take this final step, that it's totally worth the extra time.

ENJOY and BE BLESSED!

Love, Jocelyn