When I got married a few years ago I felt I ought to be grown-up and own real cookbooks rather than a drawer-full of hastily scribbled recipe copies from friends and family. I ended up picking up one of those Barnes and Noble markdowns at the front of the store called simply Wok. I had put it away in a cupboard above the stove of all places and just found it again after cleaning the other day.

The easy, well-photographed recipes are divided into the following sections: Vegetarian, Noodles and Rice, Meat and Poultry, Fish and Seafood. Most of the recipes are gluten free (just remember to substitute GF soya sauce and check your other sauces for wheat/malt/yeast) and those that aren’t can be easily modified with rice noodles, etc.

Right on page one of the Vegetarian section I came to Coleslaw with Peanuts. I am an avid hater of coleslaw but the picture looks really good and there’s nothing creamy in this Asian take. Let me announce that this recipe was the bomb and even I liked it.

Coleslaw w/Peanuts- Wok, Barnes & Noble

1 1/4 c white cabbage
1 large fennel bulb (I omitted this)
1 red pepper
1 yellow pepper
2 tbs sesame oil (I just used olive oil)
2 red chilies
4 tbs soya sauce
4 tsp honey
salt
szechuan pepper (I used plain old black)
4 tbs roasted peanuts, coriander leaves

1. Wash and dry cabbage; cut or shred into fine strips. Wash and dry the fennel and shred finely. Wash, core and seed peppers and cut these into fine strips.

2. Heat a wok and pour in the oil. Stir-fry the cabbage and fennel for 2 minutes w.o browning. Leave to cool. (Rose’s note: the recipe actually doesn’t tell you what to do with the red/yellow peppers so I threw them in with the cabbage. Since I didn’t use a fennel bulb, I also tossed in a small piece of peeled ginger and discarded this at the end of the 2 minutes.)

3. Wash and seed the chilies, chop finely.

4. Make the salad dressing by combining the soya sauce, chilies, honey, salt and a pinch of pepper. (Rose’s note: I cooked this for like 1 minute over low to melt the honey)

5. Combine cooled cabbage and fennel strips with the dressing and leave in the refrigerator for 20 minutes to marinate. Scatter over the peanuts before serving. (Rose’s note: the book’s photo of the finished recipe included fresh coriander leaves but the recipe doesn’t call for them. I put them on- they rock.)

6. Variation to this recipe: you can omit the cooking steps and replace with cabbage with zucchini and the red pepper w/ a large red onion cut to strips.

Tasty Factor: yum, yum, yum in my tum. Goes great with the Vegetarian GF Beany Burgers.

Poopy Factor: None. It refrigerated well and stayed crisp and even trumped veggie-hating Husband