Cava Cabbage Slaw

Home reconstruction

This is not a creamy coleslaw. It is a sharp, oil-and-lemon slaw meant to sit under something hot in a bowl, and it needs to hold its texture rather than soften into a side dish.

The technique that makes it work is one minute of physical effort: massage the dressing into the cabbage with your hands.

What massaging does

Cabbage leaves are stiff and waxy. Tossed with dressing, the liquid runs off and collects at the bottom of the bowl.

Squeezing and rubbing the shreds breaks down some of the cell structure at the surface. The leaf goes slightly translucent and noticeably softer, and it takes the dressing in rather than wearing it.

A minute of firm handling for a large bowl. You can see it happen — the volume drops by about a fifth and the colour deepens.

This is the same technique used on kale, and it works for the same reason.

Red and white cabbage together

Not just for colour, though that is part of it.

Red cabbage is denser and firmer and holds its crunch longer. White cabbage is sweeter and softens faster. Together you get a slaw that still has bite an hour in.

Red cabbage bleeds into the dressing and tints everything pink after a few hours, which is worth knowing if you are making it ahead.

Acid, not cream

Lemon and red wine vinegar, both. Lemon is bright and fades; vinegar is deeper and lasts. A slaw dressed with lemon alone tastes flat by the next day.

No mayonnaise at all here. The whole point of this slaw is that it cuts through whatever it is served with.

Sumac if you can get it

Sumac is a ground dried berry with a tart, slightly fruity sourness quite unlike lemon or vinegar. It is common across Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cooking and it is the ingredient that makes this slaw taste like a restaurant one rather than a home one.

Not essential. Genuinely worth buying.

What you need

• 400 g white cabbage, finely shredded
• 200 g red cabbage, finely shredded
• 2 carrots, grated
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• juice of 2 lemons
• 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp sumac (optional)
• 1 tsp fine salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1 large bunch parsley, chopped
• 3 spring onions, sliced

Method

1. 1. Shred both cabbages finely and grate the carrots into a large bowl.
2. 2. Whisk the oil, lemon, vinegar, garlic, oregano, sumac, salt and pepper.
3. 3. Pour over the cabbage.
4. 4. Massage with your hands for a full minute, squeezing and rubbing. The volume will drop and the leaves will soften.
5. 5. Rest 20 minutes.
6. 6. Stir the parsley and spring onions through just before serving.

Twenty minutes, not two hours

Long enough for the flavours to settle. Much longer and the cabbage keeps softening and starts giving up water, and you are back to a wet slaw.

If you need to make it further ahead, massage and dress it but hold the herbs back until serving.

Salt goes in the dressing

Unlike the mayonnaise-based slaws, do not pre-salt and drain the cabbage here. This dressing is thin and acidic, and a little liquid released from the cabbage is part of it rather than a problem.

Storing

Three days in the fridge. It softens progressively and the red cabbage tints everything pink after a day.

Drain any liquid and add fresh herbs before serving on day two or three.

Do not freeze.