Recipe: Red Cabbage Salad with Prawns, Grapes and Ginger

The Latvian news site NRA has published a recipe in its food section for a red cabbage salad that combines the cabbage with prawns, grapes, ginger and mint. The article also explains how to choose cabbage so that the salad turns out crunchy and fresh.

Choosing the cabbage

The recipe recommends dense, heavy heads of red cabbage with bright purple leaves. Smaller, younger heads are preferred, as their texture is more tender and they go better with the marinade and the other ingredients. The leaves should be firm, without dried edges or spots, which is the main sign of freshness. The authors suggest serving the salad with Asian wheat noodles cooked with soy sauce and sesame oil.

Ingredients

• 1 small head of red cabbage
• 400 g large raw prawns
• 2 bunches of mixed seedless grapes
• 3 cm fresh ginger
• 2 garlic cloves
• 2–3 sprigs of mint
• 4 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preparation

Peel the prawns. Grate the garlic, mix it with salt, pepper and two tablespoons of oil, add the prawns and leave to marinate for 10 minutes.

Grate the red cabbage thinly, cutting out the hard core. Peel the ginger, slice it very thinly and add it to the cabbage. Sprinkle with salt, pour over the vinegar and squeeze lightly with your hands.

Remove the grapes from their stems and halve them; if they are small, they can be left whole. Slice the mint leaves thinly, leaving the smallest ones whole.

Heat a pan and fry the marinated prawns for 1.5 minutes on each side, then let them cool slightly. Finally, combine the cabbage with the prawns, mint and grapes, add the remaining oil and pepper to taste. Serve the salad immediately.