Purple Cabbage Coleslaw

This is one of those recipes that has followed me through life. I love purple cabbage coleslaw because it's made to be much more savoury than green cabbage coleslaw, which is typically a little sweet.

In an attempt to tailor my old meat-containing stand-bys to suit the vegetarian set I am dining more frequently with, I am leaving out the main ingredient in this coleslaw - bacon. How can you leave bacon out and have it be remotely as satisfying?! Well, I set out to discover that myself today and, as a bacon-craving individual, found it was indeed possible.


This coleslaw was made with a 1/2 head of purple cabbage finely chopped, Dijon mustard, 1 finely diced small onion, mayonnaise, red miso, salt and pepper to finish. You'll notice I didn't put quantities of any of these dressing ingredients. People have such varied tolerances for the sour flavours that I thought it best to only approximate the amounts and leave the rest up to personal taste. I mixed about 1/2c mayo, 5 tbsp mustard, 1tbsp miso and laid on the salt for my own taste buds. What replaces the bacon flavour here is the miso and salt - I find. But if you like and eat bacon - use lots. It's fantastic! The trick to making this a really good coleslaw is to let it sit for at least an hour before eating. The flavours meld and soak a little into the cabbage making the umami pop.