Red cabbage, date and fetta salad

I've never been big on salad. It can't compete with a sandwich in the lunch stakes and I'm too lazy to whip up a whole separate dish to go along with whatever I'm making for dinner. It's not that I don't eat vegetables (though the name and focus of this blog might suggest otherwise), I just incorporate them into whatever I'm cooking - a soup, a pasta, a curry, risotto, thrown under a roast chicken... But! Along come a new breed of salad which is forcing me to reconsider my long-held position. These salads are robust, verging on hearty. They are colourful and crunchy. Best of all, they're the sort of thing you can make on a Sunday and have on hand for the week ahead. They're all about texture and contrasting flavours - soft, salty fetta, sweet dates, crunchy cabbage, toasted sesame seeds, bright lime... 

I'd had this recipe bookmarked for months but was prompted to finally make it following the enthusiastic endorsement of my friend Joanna, who extolled its virtues as a store cupboard salad. Red cabbage keeps forever in the fridge, and the other ingredients I usually have on hand, so it can be made at a moment's notice. And only takes moments to make.



Red cabbage, date and fetta salad
Adapted from a recipe by the ever reliable Deb Perelman of Smitten Kitchen 

You can use fresh or dried dates for this, whichever you like.


1 to 1 1/4 pounds red cabbage, sliced very thin
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons lime or lemon juice
Salt and red pepper flakes, to taste
About 1/2 cup pitted dates, coarsely chopped or sliced
4 oz fetta, crumbled into chunks
1 tablespoon chopped flat-leaf parsley
2 teaspoons well-toasted sesame seeds 


Toss cabbage with olive oil and first tablespoons of lime juice, plus salt and pepper, coating leaves evenly. Taste and add more lime juice, salt and pepper to taste.

Toss dressed cabbage gently with half of dates and fetta. Sprinkle with remaining dates, then fetta, then parsley and sesame seeds.