Winter Salad: Red Cabbage, Carrot, Orange and Date

 

 

I was inspired by a recipe from River Cottage Veg Every Day to make this salad .Well, to be honest  I copied it almost exactly, except for the parsnip.  It's a healthy vegetable, but its colour is so insipid and it's slightly bitter.  
I exchanged it for toasted sunflower seeds before I photographed it. Seduced by the vibrant colours I couldn't wait to have some of this salad for lunch.

Later  we had the leftovers for dinner I had to stretch them out to feed two of us so added some blanched carrot batons. I'll do that again next time.

Ingredients:

• ¼ red cabbage, finely shredded
• 2 large oranges, peeled with a knife and segmented, avoiding the membrane and reserving the juice
• 3 medjool dates, stoned and cut into 3-4 pieces across ways
• A few tablespoons of toasted sunflower seeds
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 sprigs of thyme, leaves only
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• carrot batons made from 2 carrots (optional)

Method

1. Spread the red cabbage evenly over a plate, top with a scattering of carrot batons (blanched)  slices of orange, the dates and several tablespoons of toasted sunflower seeds)
2. Pour over the reserved orange juice, drizzle over the olive oil, sprinkle over the thyme, finish with salt and pepper.
 

Recipe adapted from River Cottage Veg Every Day