Salad or Slaw – this is the question!

If you are trying out this “tweaking” lark and you're not keen on the traditional idea of salad and by that I mean greenery – it's quite expensive and has a limited lifespan – limp greenery is not nice, read on. Prepared bags of “leaves” deteriorate very quickly and it's also my experience that it's not packaged in suitable sizes. You've generally got to buy huge amounts for it to be economical and then of course you've lost the will half way through.

Here's my solution – try the “raw slaw” concept. It's better and more practical than salad that has to be “made”.

Finely slice whatever you fancy and bag it – red cabbage (or sweetheart, or white), carrots and onions. Bag each ingredient separately – red cabbage and carrots can bleed and onions will taint your other ingredients.

If you like fruit in your slaw throw a couple of handfuls of sultanas into a box (with a lid) and cover them with apple juice – leave for 2/3 hours and then drain off the apple juice – lovely plump bursts!

You can then make up your slaw as and when you need it – fresh to go with whatever you've chosen that day.

The method is easy – grab 2 handfuls of cabbage to 1 of carrots and 1 of onions as a rough guide.

Now for the dressing – you can if you wish do the low fat mayo and ditto crème fraiche – a dessertspoon of each, mixed and a slug of lemon juice. You could even add a tsp of Dijon mustard. Season with salt and black pepper a good pinch of sweet smoked paprika or chilli powder if you prefer.

The final addition is the drained sultanas and add an eating apple of your choice – the sharper flavour the better – ¼ed, cored and chopped. For another variation in texture add a handful of chopped walnuts.

If you'd like another low fat dressing choice, try this :

Pomegranate Dressing

2 tbsp pomegranate molasses

juice of two limes

2 tbsp sweet chilli sauce

Generous pinch of nigella seeds

1-2 tsps sumac

Mix all the ingredients together and keep in a screw top jar

and fridge

The raw slaw ingredients are relatively inexpensive and have a longer fridge life in addition to which because you are bagging and fridging individually in their raw state they don't deteriorate as quickly as green salad alternatives.

I'd like to bet you'll never buy ready-made coleslaw again.