Red Cabbage Vermicelli Salad

When we bought a HUGE red cabbage from Albany markets, I wasn't sure what to do with it. This was the case of "I have never experimented with red cabbage, how do I use it?". Besides, I thought it was wayyy too fresh to do a stir fry and wanted to retain the sweetness of it. Instead of googling or peaking into one of the recipe books I have on the shelf, I decided to make a thai-style inspired seafood vermicelli salad.

I love the fact that this was a one pot-salad dish. The mixture of flavors were beautiful. Sweetness from the cabbage blended very well with the dressing that was mixed up. The toasted cashew nuts provided a crunch and I simply adore the stain that the red cabbage gave to the vermicelli noodles.

I will not hestitate to make this again- I just have to locate a good vegetable store that sells fresh red cabbage.


Red Cabbage Vermicelli Salad (serves 4)
150grams of squid cleaned and scored
50 grams of shelled prawns
1/4 of the red cabbage sliced thinly
3-4 sticks of rice vermicelli soaked in hot water and drained
1/4 cup of cashew nuts toasted
sweet chilli sauce
seasoned salt and pepper
olive oil


Dressing
Juice of a whole lemon
2-3 tsp of fish sauce
1 tsp of sugar
2 tablespoons of olive oil
2 tsp of sesame oil


After cleaning the squid and scoring it, I marinated it with some sweet chili sauce, pepper and salt. Heat a grill pan. Swirl some olive oil in it. Place the red cabbage in the pan and heat it up for 1 min. You don't want the cabbage to be fully cooked, the heat just mellow the flavors down slightly without taking the crunch out. Remove from the pan and placed it in a huge salad bowl.

Now that the pan is hot, char grilled the squid and prawns.

Mix the dressing up in a jug.

Assemble salad. Place drained vermicelli into the salad bowl and top it with char grilled squid and cashew nuts. Toss it and serve.