Cilantro Pesto Cole Slaw

Last Updated on June 2, 2015 by Chef Mireille

Blogging Marathon #30
Theme: Kid’s Delight – Summer Special

Look at a Kid’s Menu at any restaurant and it’s usually filled with the most unhealthiest food. French Fries, Chicken Fingers and Fish Sticks are usual options – battered and fried food. Supermarket ready made foods aimed at kids are more of the same –  is this really what you want to be feeding your children? If vegetables are served, they are usually frozen or canned vegetables simply steamed with no seasoning. I wouldn’t want to eat those vegetables either. I don’t know why it’s widely believed that children do not like salads and vegetables. The problem exists when you start them on these kind of junk food items which often include flavor enhancers that make you crave more. All of a sudden when the kids start having weight problems when they approach puberty or even before, vegetables get introduced and you wonder why they won’t eat it?

From my experience cooking at a nursery school, I can tell you children will eat salads and vegetables if it’s introduced as soon as they start eating solid foods. Our toddlers, aged 2-3 years old, always ate all of their salads. In fact, many times they would leave the rice and meat, which is more work for them to chew and digest at that age. We never had to force them to eat their salad.

Children like delicious tasting food as much as adults. As long as it is seasoned and flavored well, they will eat their vegetables, unless you have one of those super picky kids who exclude whole genres of foods from their diet, like one kid we had who refused to eat any fruit. She ate her salads though!

One of the biggest hits where they would ask for seconds and thirds was when I made pickled cucumber salad. The acidic taste of vinegar with a little sugar was a kid pleaser! In this version of cole slaw, I added the sweetness by using sweet gherkins, which is a perfect example of sweet and acidic that my nursery school kids seemed to love!

Rosemary is usually sold in very large bunches. Whenever I buy it, the rest usually ends up getting dried in the refrigerator. Instead, I stored my last batch of rosemary in olive oil. This preserves it so whenever I need fresh rosemary, I just take some out of the olive oil. This serves double duty as I also now have an infused olive oil to use in recipes, as I did in this one. When the oil level gets too low in the jar, I simply add more olive oil.

Serves 8
Ingredients:

• 1 small head cabbage, thinly sliced (about 1 1/4 lbs.)
• 1 large carrot, grated
• 3/4 cup cilantro leaves, firmly packed
• 1 clove garlic
• 1/2 cup  rosemary infused olive oil
• 2 tablespoons sweet gherkins, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon mayonnaise
• 2 tablespoons spicy mustard
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

First, make the cilantro pesto.
In a food processor, combine cilantro and garlic. with processor running, slowly drizzle in oil. Alternatively, you can also use an immersion blender and process until homogenous.
In a large bowl, combine, cabbage, cabbage and gherkins.
Add pesto, mayonnaise, mustard, salt and vinegar. Toss well.

Place in refrigerator for 30 minutes. Serve.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#30

….linking to Souper Sunday and Kids Delight hosted by me here

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 Chef Mireille