Vegan Gluten Free Coleslaw Recipe

What a month it’s been!  The past two weeks I’ve been working several ten to twelve hour days for my regular job, plus teaching four cooking classes.  Oh and let’s not forget the birthday parties, potlucks, family events and fundraisers.  I’m lucky if I have enough energy to take a shower before I crawl into bed.  I’m sure you’ve all had a time in your life where you feel like you’re doing a frantic dog paddle just to keep your head above water.  So when you suddenly realize that in four hours you’re supposed to bring a salad to share for a potluck filled with people who have various dietary needs, you need a recipe that can be thrown together quickly with very little work.  For me, this coleslaw is that recipe.The family event we were attending had people with diabetes, lactose and/or gluten intolerance, and vegetarians.  This meant no creamy or mayonnaise dressings, and no honey or sugar in the dressing. It of course meant no bacon, an easy way to boost flavor in salads.  But the hardest part for me was that winter just ended and it’s not really salad season yet, which makes it hard to put together a tasty one for twenty or more people on a budget.

Fortunately, I had a giant bag of carrots sitting in my kitchen which inspired me to make some type of slaw.  I decided to incorporate flavors from both winter and spring since we’ve been in kind of a winter spring limbo lately.  Cabbage and carrots are available year round so almost always affordable.  Dried cranberries are definitely wintery, and although Washington apples are typically harvested in the fall, we eat homemade applesauce, apple butter and apple cider throughout the winter so they’re a cold weather flavor for us.

I decided some unfiltered apple cider would be a great way to plump up the cranberries and add sweetness to the dressing while still making it diabetic friendly.  You could use filtered apple juice, but it’s not as safe for people with insulin issues.  The unfiltered juice is absorbed less quickly and doesn’t cause a blood sugar spike.  It may seem like such a small quantity that it doesn’t matter, but you’d be surprised at how much those  tiny amounts can add up.

For a touch of spring, I added fresh shelled peas that were on sale at the local farmstand.  Cooked frozen peas could work just as well, but I loved the raw flavor of these little guys.  The last vegetable I added was the little shoots from the onions I planted last fall.  While the large onions are growing under the soil, they’re sending up lovely stems that you can chop up and use just like the green onions you’d buy in the store.  I love that I’m already using ingredients from my garden!

Do you have to deal with cooking for people with various food restrictions?  What are your go to recipes?