Raw Veggie Slaw - Two Different Ways
A few weeks ago we recorded a podcast episode with a vegan personal chef, Laura Orbe. Laura gave us the low down on the best vegetables for brain and gut health.
With those veggies in mind, I requested those veggies in my weekly produce box and started thinking of how I was going to use them.
I used green cabbage, radishes, watermelon radishes, and broccoli.
I'd like to claim that I came up with a super unique way to use these ingredients together, but I didn't really go too outside of the box with it. I just chopped it all up and put it in a container and called it a veggie slaw - ha!
I didn't season it, though. I decided I'd use it in different ways throughout the week. This was how I incorporated it into several different meals with different flavor profiles.
Veggie Slaw Ingredients:
4 or 5 small radishes, copped
1 watermelon radish, chopped
1/4 of a head of cabbage, chopped into long thin slices
2 or 3 small heads of broccoli florets, chopped into small pieces
If you've never had watermelon radishes you're going to LOVE THEM.
They have a sweet crunch like carrots but maintain the consistency of radishes without the bitterness.
Benefits of Cabbage:
Half a cup of cooked cabbage has about a third of the vitamin C you need for the day.
It also gives you doses of fiber, folate, potassium, magnesium, vitamins A and K, and more.
When you ferment cabbage, it makes natural probiotics that nourish the bacteria in your gut. Those bacteria help your body fight germs, take in nutrients, digest food, and control anxiety.
It can help reduce inflammation, it's great for digestion, and is great for your heart.
It's a cruciferous vegetable (like Brocolli), which means it can help reduce the risk of cancer!
Benefits of Radishes:
Good source of antioxidants like catechin, pyrogallol, vanillic acid, and other phenolic compounds.
A good amount of vitamin C, which acts as an antioxidant to protect your cells from damage.
Radishes contain chemical compounds like glucosinolate and isothiocyanate that can help regulate blood sugar levels. This helps reduce the risk of diabetes.
They contain indole-3-carbinol and 4-methylthio-3-butenyl-isothiocyanate, which help the liver detoxify and heal against damage. These same compounds also help the kidneys flush out toxins.
Radishes are rich in antioxidants and minerals like calcium and potassium. Together, these nutrients help lower high blood pressure and reduce your risks for heart disease.
Benefits of Broccoli:
One cup of broccoli has as much vitamin C as an orange.
It's rich in calcium, iron, phosphorous, potassium, zinc, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, vitamins A, B6, B12, D, E and K, and folate.
It's rich in a sulfur compound called sulforaphane, which may help with certain health conditions like diabetes, cancer, osteoarthritis, and schizophrenia
Here are the 2 ways I doctored this slaw up to make work with my turkey taco meat (recipe here!) and with tuna to make an amazing sandwich!
Tuna Veggie Slaw Ingredients:
Veggie slaw base mentioned above
1 can tuna (drained)
4/5 small sundries tomatoes, chopped into small pieces
4 Kalamata olives, chopped into small pieces
1 or 2 tbsp of avocado oil mayo depending on how much mayo you like in your tuna. (I like Primal Kitchen's avocado oil mayo because it doesn't have any crappy ingredients in it)
Splash of olive oil
Salt, pepper, and garlic to taste
1 tbsp. of nutritional yeast (optional, adds a nutty flavor)
Turkey Taco Slaw Ingredients:
Veggie slaw base mentioned above
Tomatoes, diced
Bell peppers, diced
Raisins
2 tbsp of avocado oil mayo
Lime juice to taste
Salt and pepper to taste
This goes great over tacos or any spicy flavored dish. I would even say this would be great over BBQ like pulled pork or BBQ jackfruit!
I hope you all enjoy these two yummy versions of a really healthy raw vegetable slaw.
The cabbage, broccoli and radishes are SO good for you in so many ways.
Let us know what you think and how you use these slaws.