Busy week nights and autumn salad experiments – cabbage salad with maple dressing

Hey there!

Finally, I am back! University after all isn’t all that easy even though all of my friends who are already working in a full time job keep telling me how my life is supposedly so much easier than theirs… Well how do they know, they haven’t attended university.

Anyways all in all I actually really enjoy my studies, which is kind of the crucial point after all. And I obviously knew in advance that I wouldn’t have as much time for blogging as soon as school would start again, but that’s life, you can’t always be on holidays, can you?

As I get home rather late most nights I am starting to stick to simple and quick dinners as I really don’t feel like standing in the kitchen for ages after a long day listening to lecturers talking about the relationship between a signifier and its signified or the phonetics of English language. Although cooking still remains to be one of my most valued relaxation times. Though I just tend to be super hungry when I get home hence my urge to create quick and simple dinners instead of ones where a cooking time of hours and hours is required.

One of the recipes I came up with has been this beautiful autumn salad with a basis of white cabbage and delicious autumnally toppings. As you might know if you’ve been following me for a while, I don’t particularly like autumn and winter yet I adore the produce available during those colder months of the year. Pumpkin, figs, chestnuts, apples, pears, … DELICIOUS!

For today’s dish though I went for my two favourites which are not surprisingly pumpkin ( yes, I know I have already posted tons of pumpkin recipes this year and trust me this won’t be the last one either) and I also chose to add figs, which I nearly love equally as much as pumpkin.

Well this is going to be one of my shorter blog posts as I should actually be doing some uni work right now but I mean you’re probably here to read my recipe not to listen to me moaning about my terribly exhausting student life…

So here you go a quick autumn salad recipe perfect after a busy day at work or school.

• 1 head of cabbage
• a few slices of left over baked pumpkin
• 1 fig
• 2 tbs maple syrup
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 1 tbs apple cider vinegar
• 2 tbs dried cranberries
• a couple of almonds
• 1 tbs pumpkin seeds

1. Cut your cabbage in half and finely slice it, then add the finely chopped cabbage as well as the maple syrup, olive oil, apple cider vinegar, salt and the cranberries into a bowl and massage the dressing into the cabbage. Let this mixture sit for about 30 minutes so the cabbage can absorb some of the dressing and soften slightly.
2. If you haven’t got any left over baked pumpkin this would be the time to prepare it, I like to bake mine for about 30 minutes at 180 ° C drizzled with some olive oil and sprinkled with salt and fresh rosemary.
3. Thirty minutes later you can slice the fig into slices and finely chop up the pumpkin seeds and the almonds.
4. Top your cabbage and cranberries with the baked pumpkin slices, the figs and sprinkle with the chopped almonds and pumpkin seeds.

Voila, you just created the most beautiful autumn salad. So easy yet so tasty. The slight bitterness of the cabbage contrasted perfectly with the sweet maple dressing as well as the sweetness of the cranberries and the pumpkin. The slight crunch added by the pumpkin seeds and the almonds just added the right amount of diversity in texture to finish off this wonderful creation.

This dish is such a great way to make a salad autumn appropriate, as you can’t really keep eating the ordinary cucumber and tomato mixtures from summer. I mean you’ve got to make use of the produce available in your area, don’t you?

So guys enjoy your night and the rest of the weeks, only two more days!

Bisous