Salads are deemed to be healthy food, right from beginning. You mention taste and the salad bowl takes a backseat immediately. However, there are several ways to spruce up the healthy world too. Drizzling the salad with a delicious and creamy dressing will help you relish the bowl and intake the good nutrition too. While salad is often treated as a side dish, it actually has a side dish to it too. It is coleslaw. For those untouched by the phenomenon, this is a creamy side dish or dressing for a salad which usually consists of shredded cabbage. The cabbage is mixed with vinaigrette and this helps it to stay fresh for longer.
However, the coleslaw cannot be deemed to be a completely healthy dish because it often features mayonnaise which is loaded with calories. This problem seems to be solved by Padma Lakshmi. From being a phenomenal host at a famous cookery show to authoring books and modeling, Padma Lakshmi has a multi-faceted personality. She is often seen sharing food hacks and recipes on her social media with her fans. The Indian-American lady showered our Instagram feeds with an interesting chipotle coleslaw recipe, that too, with hacks and tricks to make it healthy.
Here is what she shared.
Source: Padma Lakshmi/Instagram
Padma Lakshmi begins by adding shredded red cabbage to a bowl. She then adds some finely shredded carrot to it too. She adds some sliced apples to the bowl. Then she goes on to share her healthy hack to make the coleslaw tasty and low on calories. She replaces the mayonnaise partially with yoghurt. Fresh dahi, as she calls it, is added to the bowl in equal parts as mayonnaise. This balances the calorie-loaded effects of mayonnaise. Finally, she seasons it with salt, pepper and chipotle sauce. The hot and spicy sauce turns up the heat of the coleslaw and it is mixed well. Garnishing with some fresh mint leaves, the coleslaw looks just perfect.
A drizzle of lime juice and the healthy chipotle coleslaw is good to go. Liking what you see? Here are some recipes that can be paired with coleslaw.
1. Turkey Hot Dogs
Select soft buns and slather them with a meaty mixture of turkey sausages with avocado, basil leaves, red onions and what not. You can add a tangy chilli and capsicum salsa to it too. Well, the coleslaw will surely balance all these flavours really well.
2. Pulled Chicken Sandwiches
The chicken breast is pulled into pieces and dunked into bread. Barbeque sauce, hot pepper sauce and many others are added to give it a tangy taste.