Cabbage and Lime Salad with Roasted Peanuts

This is a refreshingly different sort of salad, just bursting with zesty lime flavor.  It's another great example of ordinary ingredients turned extraordinary.  Just grab a couple of cabbages, some limes, and a bunch of spinach at the farmer's market, and you're most of the way there.  The crunch of peanuts serves as a delicious bonus.

This salad comes together easily, but you do have to be somewhat premeditated because of the two hours of resting time.  I actually wilted the cabbage in salt the night before, since by the time it had rested for two hours I would have been criminally hungry.  The wilted cabbage keeps, covered in the refrigerator, for up to a couple of days, so you can get that part out of the way in advance. 

You can happily enjoy this as a main course salad with some bread, or use it as a slaw with tasty BBQ.  You might be tempted to add cilantro (I don't know about you, but lime and cilantro are naturally associated in my brain), but I'd recommend tasting it first.  As much as I love cilantro, I think it would turn this into a completely different dish, and not necessarily in a good way. 

Cabbage and Lime Salad with Roasted Peanuts

adapted from The Lee Bros. Simple Fresh Southern

serves 6

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 small red cabbage, trimmed, cored, and shredded

1/2 small green cabbage, trimmed, cored, and shredded

1 tablespoons kosher salt, plus more to taste

1 bunch of fresh spinach leaves, cut into 1/2-inch ribbons

1 lime, segmented

juice of two limes

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/4 cup canola oil (peanut oil if you have it)

1/4 cup roasted salted peanuts, coarsely chopped

freshly ground black pepper

DIRECTIONS:

1.  In a large bowl, toss the cabbages with the salt.  Transfer to a colander, place over the bowl, and let sit for two hours to drain.  After two hours have passed, discard the salty water in the bowl (after admiring the pretty color), rinse and dry the bowl, and return the cabbage to it.

2.  Add spinach and lime segments to the bowl.  In a medium bowl, whisk lime juice, mustard and cumin together.  Stream in the canola oil, whisking constantly, to emulsify the dressing.  Pour the dressing over the salad and toss together.  Toss in the peanuts and serve.

Enjoy!