Kitchen: A Tasty New Way to Enjoy Coleslaw

By ANGELA McRAE, Special to The Coweta Shopper

Because I work with words for a living, I am keenly aware that words are spelled in some interesting ways.

If I were queen, things would be different and much more consistent. Who, I wonder, decided that “townhome” is one word but “town house” is two words?

I had coleslaw on the brain recently and visited Merriam-Webster.com to confirm that yes, it’s one word and not “cole slaw” like I sometimes see it spelled. A word etymology website had it listed as “cole-slaw,” but that is simply an abomination.

The reason I’m obsessing over the spelling of coleslaw is that when I was younger, I thought perhaps I was hearing “cold slaw” (as opposed to “hot slaw”), but it turns out that coleslaw is a variation of the Dutch word “koolsla,” which literally means “cabbage salad.”

Coleslaw isn’t a food I’ve thought about very often. I like a good slaw dog every now and then, especially in the summer, but regular coleslaw has never topped my list of favorite sides. I could take it or leave it. Then I decided to make my own one day and learned that it’s super easy to whip up a bowl full of fresh and crunchy coleslaw thanks to the bags of pre-shredded cabbage available at grocery stores. These bags of mixed cabbages and chopped carrots is what I think of as a classic base for coleslaw, and then you just add some sort of salad dressing according to your preference.

But I was poring over one of my old cookbooks the other day, Gems from Georgia Kitchens, when I discovered a recipe for a fruit slaw that sounded intriguing. I’d never heard of a slaw made with fruit since all coleslaw recipes I’m familiar with are exclusively vegetable based. This one sounded pretty good, though—with grapes, pineapple, and fresh peaches—so I had to give it a try.

The dressing part of the recipe called for cream and included a quaint note to “omit if counting calories.” My thinking is that if we’re going to be eating mostly cabbage and fruit, hey, let’s live a little and add the cream.

To be honest, though, I needed a dish to take to a ladies’ luncheon and had zero interest in firing up the oven this month. This was a great new recipe to simply assemble and call it a day, and frankly, I like this fruity slaw even better than the other kind.

Fruit Slaw

2 cups cabbage, finely grated (press between paper towels to remove liquid)
1 cup seedless green grapes
1 cup canned pineapple, drained and diced
1 cup fresh peaches, diced

Dressing

1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup cream

Using a medium-sized mixing bowl, add first four ingredients and toss well. In a separate bowl, combine dressing ingredients, whisk, then toss lightly over the cabbage and fruits. Store in refrigerator until time to serve. Yields 10-12 servings.