Raw Brussels Sprouts

I like to say that "Vegan is the highest common denominator" (at least in terms of food and eaters), because everyone eats plants. Then I was in Portland a year or two ago, and I said this to someone who came back with, "Actually, raw vegan is." He's obviously never traveled to India--eat raw food there see how your day goes.

But the fact is, raw food is a must, a minimum daily requirement. I've taken to blending salad for breakfast (a.k.a. "green juice") and it's freaking great. I still cook a lot of my food (I am a cook, after all), but my body loves raw food best. I can feel its gratitude every time I feed it raw food.

So I was thinking recently about how to eat a Brussels sprout raw (and enjoy it, of course), when it came to me: make it the primary ingredient in a cole slaw! I don't know why I never thought of it before. It's a cabbage, after all--in Mexico, where I grew up,  the name for it is col de bruselas ("cabbage of Brussels"). But my friendship with Brussels sprouts is still fairly young--I hated it as a kid--and I haven't really spent a lot of time thinking up ways to use it.

For this slaw, I used a mandoline to get uniform, superthin slices of the Brussels sprouts and red cabbage. I added finely grated carrot and then fluffed the slaw to combine the three ingredients well. Then I made a creamy dressing with fresh lime juice, sherry vinegar, Udo's Oil, raw cashew butter, mellow white miso, tamari, sriracha sauce, and grated ginger. I served it immediately after tossing in the dressing, when all the flavors and textures were at their peak of assertiveness.

I realized after I had written it all down, that I hadn't used any onion--something I'd rarely left out of most salads, let alone a slaw--but the this was so pungent and spicy, it hadn't occurred to me while I was eating it. It was bit paradoxical, really--the texture was very delicate, with just a little crunch, yet with an explosive overall effect. It was still good the next day, but nothing like that hot-sweet-sour-crunchy-creamy tangle I piled into bowls and ate just seconds after assembling. And the colors! Check out the colors!