When I was in high school, I read a Michael Pollan article on the American steer industry in the New York Times and immediately became a vegetarian.
It wasn’t very hard. I was in boarding school at the time, and all there was to tempt me was sub-par, grey burger patties and chicken parm that looked and smelled nothing like my mother’s. It helped that my former roommate and close friend was also a vegetarian; together, we opted for the vegetarian option any time we went out and assembled our own dinners in the dining hall by combining elements from the pasta and salad bars. The only place I ever felt tempted was Fuddruckers, which we occasionally trekked to, through the snow, for a special dinner on weekends, but their veggie burger was nearly as good as the beef patty.
I nevertheless gave up vegetarianism after just over a year, because of France.
I was participating in a study abroad program with a homestay component, and, while I had indicated on my forms that I was a vegetarian, the sweet woman who hosted me didn’t fully understand. After dishing out cordons bleu (breaded chicken breasts stuffed with ham and cheese) to the four other girls staying with her, she gave me a knowing look, returned to the kitchen, and presented me with… a whole fish.
I ate it. I could feel that something was different about the way that food was treated in France. There was a reverence about it that I didn’t feel equipped to challenge with my adolescent beliefs (and sub-par French), no matter how real they seemed to me at the time.
For a while, I was a pescatarian, slowly beginning to eat more and more meat as time went on. But in the (gulp) 15 years since I was a vegetarian, I have never abandoned my love of plant-based meals.
I was recently in New York, where I saw my sister for the first time in nearly two years. It was one of the strangest things, to realize how long it had been. It didn’t feel as though it had been quite that long, and yet she was certainly different than the last time I had seen her: She had since moved to Los Angeles and started eating vegan – and, at the risk of sounding cliché, she was glowing. A plant-based way of life suited her, and it inspired me to create this dish.
Even when I was a vegetarian, I very rarely sought out ways to make dishes I loved fit into my new diet. I didn’t eat plant-based meats, and when I’ve avoided dairy in the past, I’ve never used plant-based replacements.
I’m not sure, then, whether to call this a vegan cole slaw or just a vegan salad; either way, and no matter how your household eats, the creamy avocado dressing combined with the tang of homemade sauerkraut will make this dish a winner.
Sauerkraut Cole Slaw
1 avocado, chopped
juice of 1 lime
1 pinch garlic powder
1 pinch onion powder
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons water
1 pinch fleur de sel
2-3 medium carrots
1 cup beet and red cabbage kraut (or shredded red cabbage)
1 green onion, thinly sliced
Place all of the dressing ingredients in a jar and use an immersion blender to blend until smooth. Add the vegetables and the dressing to a bowl and toss together to combine. Serve immediately.