Chinese cabbage salad with pepper and sweetcorn: a big bowl for eight
The salad everyone brings to a shared table: Chinese cabbage shredded across the leaf, red pepper, sweetcorn, ham and egg in a light dressing of yogurt with mayonnaise. Chinese cabbage weeps within a quarter of an hour of being salted, which is why the dressing goes in just before serving, not an hour ahead.
Your own work in that: 20 min.
- Chopping 15 min
- Dressing and tossing 5 min
Step by step
0 / 4 doneShred the cabbage across the leaf
Cut away the hard core and slice the head across the leaves into 1 cm ribbons. Across, because that cuts the fibres and the cabbage doesn't trail off the fork in long strands. Cut the thick white leaf bases thinner than the green tips.
Ingredients: 1 pcs Chinese cabbage · 2 pcs red peppers · 340 g tinned sweetcorn · 3 pcs eggs · 200 g ham or smoked sausage · ½ pcs red onion · ½ bunch chives
Across the leaf, ribbons of a centimetrePrepare the rest
Cut the peppers into strips, drain the sweetcorn in a sieve, dice the eggs and ham into 1 cm pieces, slice the onion into very thin feathers, snip the chives. Draining the corn isn't cosmetic: half a cup of canning liquid waters down the whole dressing.
Peppers in strips, corn drainedMake the dressing
Stir the yogurt with the mayonnaise, mustard, lemon juice, sugar, salt and pepper. The dressing should taste boldly seasoned, because the cabbage is bland on its own and will dilute it.
Ingredients: 5 tbsp natural yogurt · 4 tbsp mayonnaise · 1 tsp mustard · ½ pcs lemon, juice · 1 tsp sugar · 1 tsp salt · ½ tsp black pepper
Yogurt, mayonnaise, mustard, lemonToss just before serving
Combine everything with the dressing immediately before serving. Salt in the dressing draws water out of the cabbage; within an hour there is a puddle in the bottom of the bowl and the salad is watery. For a party, take the vegetables and the dressing separately and combine them there.
TipIf you must prepare ahead: cut everything, cover with cling film and keep it up to 6 hours in the fridge, with the dressing in a jar beside it. Tossing takes a minute.
Dressing goes in last, not an hour early
Before you start
With chicken
300 g chicken breast fried with spices (cooked right through, no pink in the middle, and cooled) instead of the ham: the salad becomes a main course for a summer supper.
With pineapple
A can of diced pineapple, well drained, instead of the sweetcorn. The sweeter version, usually a hit with children.
Lighter
Greek yogurt alone with a spoon of olive oil and the mustard, no mayonnaise. Add half a teaspoon more sugar to balance the acidity.
