Sveta and I often go camping in Scotland in summer. It's great fun and one of the cheapest ways to travel around the country and see the best of it. Once we were shopping in a nearby supermarket for our lunch. 'What's this?' asked Sveta, holding up a tub of coleslaw. 'Cabbage salad.' I replied. Sveta loves cabbage salad so she put the tub in the basket. I didn't try the coleslaw. Apart from the fact that it contained eggs which I try not to eat, I generally find ready prepared salads from supermarket shelves pretty disgusting. I didn't mention this to Sveta as I have always assumed that I was just ultra fussy and that most people would enjoy such salads. After all they do seem to sell a lot. When we had lunch back at the campsite Sveta tried a spoonful of coleslaw and said it was horrible. So it's not just me.
The list of ingredients in such salads is frightening and includes things like emulsifiers, anti-oxidants and stabilisers. I can only assume that people who regularly eat supermarket ready-prepared products get used to them and don't realise just how little resemblance they bear to their freshly prepared counterparts. When we got home I made a bowl of fresh coleslaw for Sveta which she enjoyed as she would any other fresh cabbage salad.
There are several ways of avoiding using egg-based mayonnaise for this recipe, one of which is to use egg-free mayonnaise. Jars of such mayonnaise are widely available these days in health food shops and even supermarkets but, unfortunately, they often contain just as many weird additives as we found in our coleslaw. Some varieties are better than others so choose your product carefully.
Other options are yoghurt (dairy or soya), sour cream, or a mixture of both. Mixing yoghurt and olive oil also makes a lovely mayonnaise alternative. You can try my tofu mayo recipe. It tastes delicious with coleslaw but be warned it does tend to separate out when mixed with anything. This is a problem I have so far been unable to solve (I guess that's why they put all the emulsifiers and stuff into the commercially produced varieties).
Ingredients
Half of a firm head of white cabbage
1 onion
1 carrot
1 teaspoon of mustard (dry or prepared)
Salt
Mayonnaise or equivalent
Shred the cabbage finely, chop the onion finely and grate the
carrot. Mix the vegetables with the salt, mustard and as much mayonnaise as
seems reasonable.