This Asian slaw recipe comes from one of my favorite cookbooks Sandra Lee Semi Homemade Meals aka Cooking for Dummies, aka The Lazy Woman’s Guide to Cooking, and finally The Single, Busy Person’s Bible of Culinary Arts.
It has served me well.
There’s not much to this particular slaw and Sandra gives you so many shortcuts you’ll feel like you did absolutely nothing.
You’ll feel like a manager who knows the bare minimum of how to do their job and takes the credit of the minions who do.
It’s a great life if you have no pride.
What you’ll need
- 1/4 cup rice vinegar
- 1 tablespoon of sesame seeds
- 1 tablespoon canola oil
- 1 tablespoon dark sesame oil
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar
- 12 ounces three-color coleslaw mix
- 1 cup canned bean sprouts
- 1 cup chow mein noodles
Our first step is to mix the vinegar, sesame seeds, canola oil, sesame oil, and sugar together in a round cooking device of your choosing. Just make sure this device can also support that coleslaw mix, because that’s what’s going to go in next.
Go ahead and add the mix in along with the bean sprouts and chow mein noodles. Toss this mixture and then let it chill in your fridge for 15 minutes.
Once those minutes are up, you may garnish with more noodles and/or eat it up!
Recipe is pretty self explanatory right?
So how is the taste?
It’s quite refreshing and much crunchier than mayo obsessed American coleslaw.
The cabbage is your standard cabbage and the chow mein is what fuels the crunch. My favorite ingredient in this slaw has to be the sesame oil. It gives the slaw a rich amber cream-like taste.
The only negative point I have is that it’s not a dish you want to keep as a leftover. The mein will get soggy and the sesame oil seems to dissipate which makes the slaw taste a bit bland.
It’s not inedible if you end up with leftovers. It’s just one of those cases where you find yourself disappointed because you know the potential of what this could be.
All in all, this is an easy side dish that you can whip up in no time and I recommend you give it a try!