Folks, I have to tell you that this salad, made from items I had on hand and in some cases was trying to use up, is so seriously delicious that I’ve eaten it for my past three lunches straight. Today I used up the last of the dressing and thus the run has come to an end at least for now, but I plan to keep it in rotation for the future. It has (mostly) healthful ingredients and is a true one-dish meal, with lots of vegetables and good protein from peanuts. If you care about such things, it’s also vegetarian. In fact, it’s actually vegan except for the dressing. Here’s what’s in it:
Bagged coleslaw mix—I bought two of this item on Sunday because I had said I’d bring a salad to a luncheon, but it turned out that it wasn’t needed. I didn’t even open the bags. I managed to palm one off on my mother-in-law, but I was stuck with the other one.
Chopped green onions—I try to keep these on hand.
English cucumbers—from one of these three-packs they sell at Costco. Just one of these long, thin cucumbers is $1.99 at the regular grocery store, but at Costco they’re much less than that per item. Unfortunately, using up the three-pack is pretty difficult for home use; I don’t think I’ve ever failed to throw out at least one of them. This purchase was made with the idea that I’d put slices around the bowls of hummus I made for the Chorale concert a week and a half ago, but I ran out of time and steam to get them prepped. I’m happy to relate that, what with my salad consumption and some other uses we’re down to just half of one right now, and I think it’s going to get eaten up. Success! (Yes, this is the same set of cucumbers that I mentioned in this post. I’m surprised that they’ve lasted this long!)
Chopped dry-roasted peanuts—King Soopers’ store brand, a jar of which I keep in the freezer for just such uses. They do have some sugar (which I was surprised to see) and some preservatives, but I don’t use them for anything other than this sort of thing; in other words, as a garnish or an ingredient. I don’t snack on them as a rule.
Chow mein noodles—pretty bad, I know! I don’t even have the ingredient list in front of me because I put them in a ziploc bag for the freezer. Again, though, as with the peanuts, they’re just a garnish and not a snack or a main ingredient.
Dressing that’s a roughly half-and-half mixture of my signature creamy Italian dressing and the peanut-lime dressing from this website. I had some leftovers of both and, once again, wanted to use them up. So I just mixed the two together and really liked the result. If I were making this salad again, though, and starting from scratch on the dressing, I’d just make the peanut dressing. It doesn’t have any ingredients that will spoil, so technically it should last forever in the fridge. I also like to have the Italian dressing on hand pretty much all the time, but since it does have some egg in it I don’t like to have it around too long. You can substitute mayonnaise for the egg if you’d like, though, also putting it in the should-last-forever category. (I haven’t done this experiment yet, but I plan to do so with the next batch and will add that option.)
This salad comes together very quickly if you’re using the prepared coleslaw mix. (Napa or Savoy cabbage and some grated carrots are a good substitute for the coleslaw mix. I don’t typically like regular cabbage but find that the dressing is assertive enough on this salad to hide that bitter cabbage taste. I would never buy a whole head of regular cabbage, though, as I’d never use it up. It’s fair to point out that these other two types are much more expensive; Savoy cabbage has clocked in at $2.49 a pound before vs. $.69 a pound for the regular stuff, and Napa cabbage is usually $1.99. Your call!) You’ll need to slice/dice the green onions and the cucumbers and give the peanuts a rough chop just so the pieces aren’t so big and can be distributed more evenly throughout the salad. Throw everything but the chow mein noodles into a bowl and toss well, then add the noodles and toss again. Fabuloso!