As the weather gets warmer, my mind turns from soups to salad – and on Sunday, at the first BBQ of the season, this salad seemed perfect. In fact, it’s also a great winter salad as most of the ingredients are staples that are available all year round.

What I have outlined below is the core structure of the salad, but you could easily add other ingredients depending on the season and what you have available. I have previously added extras such as finely sliced capsicum, snow peas, red cabbage, radish, bean shoots, cucumber, apple and basil. I’ve also sometimes added noodles to make a more substantial meal.  This is similar to a classic Vietnamese salad, but the dressing makes it more of a Asian cultural mish-mash, with soy sauce and sesame oil added to the fish sauce and lime.

I see this as a very flexible template – Let me know what variations you come up with!

Asian Cabbage Salad

• ½ green cabbage
• 4 smallish carrots (I used 2 orange and 2 white, but purple would be great for an extra colour)
• 3 spring onions
• ½ bunch coriander
• large handful mint

Dressing

• 2 Tbs fish sauce
• 2 Tbs lime juice
• 1 Tbs wheat-free soy sauce
• 1 Tbs sesame oil
• 1 Tbs brown sugar
• 1 Tbs rice wine vinegar
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 cm piece ginger finely chopped

Finely shred the cabbage by cutting cabbage in quarters, removing the core, and slicing thinly across each quarter. Peel, and shred or grate the carrots, using a mandolin slicer if you have one. Finely slice the spring onions and roughly chop the coriander and mint.

Combine salad ingredients in a large bowl and toss gently together. These can be prepared early in the day, but don’t dress the salad until you’re about to eat.

Combine all dressing ingredients in a small jar. Adjust seasoning to taste – you may prefer more sugar, lime or fish sauce to adjust the sweet/sour/salty balance.

When about to serve, toss dressing through salad. You may not need all the dressing, but don’t worry, it keeps well in the fridge.