Blue Cheese Coleslaw

Loosen the belt buckles... this is a rich, delicious summertime food that will be feasted on. Have a large family picnic or friend's BBQ coming up? This coleslaw would be perfect. It goes soooo well with veggie burgers, or for the meat eaters, I bet it would be smashing with BBQ chicken.

You can adjust the richness based on how much blue cheese you put in it. And by how long you let it sit. The day I made it, I thought it was perfect. The next day, the richness had exploded and I could only eat a few bites.

I normally prefer a lighter 'salad' side, but I have to admit, this was really good the day-of. Really, really good. I also really liked the mix of veggies used (nothing out of the ordinary for coleslaw, but I don't use cabbage a lot and it was a nice change from the norm). Try some variations, based on what sounds good or what you have in the fridge. I bet this would be great with some green beans, cauliflower or broccoli added. I can also imagine the sauce used on things other than a traditional coleslaw, such as a broccoli, sunflower seed and carrot mix. Yum!


One last note: Because of the richness of the blue cheese, I think the serving sizes are a bit smaller than normal. This makes quite a bit of coleslaw, so for 5-6 adults, I would half the recipe. If you want leftovers, make the full amount.

Blue Cheese Coleslaw
adapted slightly from Deb (aka: Smitten Kitchen) on NPR

1/2 small head green cabbage
1/2 small head red cabbage
1 10 oz. package shredded carrots
2 cups (16 ounces) mayonnaise
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons whole grain mustard (I only used dijon)
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar (rice vinegar also works)
1 teaspoon celery salt (I omitted this)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 cups (6 ounces) crumbled Roquefort blue cheese
1 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Cut the cabbages in half and then in quarters and cut out the cores. Slice the cabbage into long strands, then chop a bit more until you have reasonable sized pieces (for me, that means 'bite sized'). Add carrots to cabbage.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, both mustards (see my note above), vinegar, celery salt, kosher salt and pepper. Pour enough mayonnaise dressing over the grated vegetables and toss to moisten well. Add crumbled blue cheese and parsley and toss with vegetables.

At this point, the original recipe says to: "Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour or more to allow the flavors to meld." However, we ate ours within a half hour of making it, and it was perfect. Serve cold or at room temperature.

Guten appetit!