Cardamom and Tea

amba slaw

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I recently wrote a bit about the shared culinary roots of a few of my favorite South Asian and Middle Eastern dishes. The article focused mostly on biryani, but I also briefly mentioned one of my favorite Iraqi foods: amba! Amba originated as pickled mango in southern India (and it continues to be pickled mango in door of my grandmother’s refrigerator), but I learned from my friend Sham that in Iraq, amba can be just about anything pickled in a fenugreek brine. It’s one of those foods that’s always developing and adapting to include different veggies.

This salad is inspired by some of the veggies typically used to make amba in Iraq, like cabbage, mango, and carrot. But instead of turning them into a traditional pickle, I shredded the cabbage and turned it into a bright summery slaw, with a fenugreek vinaigrette. While this salad is primarily inspired by Iraqi amba, it might also remind you a little bit of Vietnamese green mango salad. In fact, I’m pretty sure that’s what inspired me to add fresh cilantro to it. It’s vegan, gluten free, healthy, not too expensive, and it goes with just about everything. I can’t possibly list all the things, but I’ll name some of my favorites:

This slaw is the perfect side dish to liven up a monochromatic meal. Bring it to any pot luck, and everyone’s mood will instantly brighten. It’s a fabulous topping for a black bean burger, especially with a sesame bun. It’s so delicious on fish tacos (oh my gosh, now I’m having regrets about not making this a fish taco with amba slaw post). And I haven’t actually tried this idea yet, but I have a feeling it would be delicious in fresh spring rolls.

The dressing in this salad is basically a less acidic, much mellower version of the brine that I use to pickle mangoes. Even though it’s not mouth-puckeringly tart (something you want in a pickle, but not so much in a salad), it still gives me all the amba feels, and it’s one of my favorite things about this recipe. In fact, I recently served this to some friends who have two little kids, and their one-year-old spent the whole dinner just sucking the dressing off of the mango pieces, so it sounds like this one is a winner (I know pretty much nothing about children, but I do know that they’re honest and don’t like most foods, so that feels like a definite success).

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amba slaw

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  • Prep Time: 10 minutes with a food processor, 20 minutes by hand
  • Total Time: 25 to 40 minutes
  • Yield: 8 side servings

Ingredients

  • 10 ounces red cabbage (about 1/2 of 1 head), shredded*
  • 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon yellow curry powder**
  • 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper (or to taste)
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • packed 1/4 to 1/2 cup cilantro leaves (to taste)
  • 1 pound semi-ripe mangoes (about 2 mangoes), julienne or cut into match-sticks***
  • 12 ounces carrots (about 2–3 carrots), julienne or cut into match sticks*

Instructions

  1. Soak the cabbage in cold water while you’re prepping the rest of the ingredients (this will prevent its color from unattractively bleeding). Strain, rinse, and dry it after about 10 to 30 minutes.
  2. Combine the apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil, yellow curry powder, crushed red pepper, and salt in a salad bowl.
  3. Whisk the salad dressing together, and then immediately pile on the dried cabbage, mango julienne, and carrot julienne. Toss everything together a few times, then add the cilantro leaves and toss together until everything is coated evenly.

Notes

* To make it easier to shred the cabbage, feel free to use a food processor. Use the slicer attachment for the cabbage, and use the grater attachment for the carrots. Make sure you always use the plastic pusher to send veggies through the feed tube.

** Try to find a blend with fenugreek in it to make this really taste like amba, or mix up a batch of my yellow curry powder, which has a decent amount of fenugreek. But if you can’t find a curry blend with fenugreek seeds, it’ll still taste delicious.

*** Whatever you do, don’t use super ripe mangoes, which will turn to mush when you mix everything together. Amba is made from unripe green mango, so it’s better to err on the side of unripe for this recipe. When I developed this recipe, I used semi-ripe mangoes, which were still firm but yielded very slightly to pressure (they’re not hard as rocks, but they’re definitely not soft).

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apricot pistachio salad with cilantro lemon dressing

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Blog posts in the summertime practically write themselves. It’s always just like, “Oh my gosh guys it’s whatever-season!!! Don’t forget to make an upside down cake or a salad before it’s too late!” I know I should probably come up with something more interesting to say, but sometimes interesting isn’t what’s necessary, and the one thing I really need you to know right now is that it’s the tail end of apricot season. This is not a particularly earth-shattering or groundbreaking claim, but there you have it.

So go buy some apricots, right now, and then go make all the things you’ve been dreaming about since May, but just haven’t gotten around to making. Or, if you haven’t really had much of a chance to daydream about apricots (that’s okay, I daydream about them enough for the both of us), you should go make this salad. It’s a celebration of one of my favorite combinations, apricots and ground pistachios. They’re a match made in heaven, and my favorite flavor of lokme (AKA Turkish delight). Here, they bring just the right sweetness and crunch to a lovely summer salad. And, while I love just about any stone fruit in a salad, apricots are particularly versatile, because of their meaty texture. Even when they’re perfectly ripe, they don’t have the same runny juiciness as peaches and plums, so they tend to keep to themselves instead of totally taking over the whole salad. Plus, isn’t it great that they’re not cling-stone fruits? The pits just pop right out, which makes them the ideal for easy summer cooking.

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apricot pistachio salad with cilantro lemon dressing

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  • Total Time: 15 minutes
  • Yield: 4 to 6 servings

Ingredients

  • 1 bunch cilantro*
  • 1 small clove garlic (from the inside of the head)
  • 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil**
  • 1/4 cup lemon juice
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt, or to taste
  • 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
  • 5 ounces arugula, washed and dried
  • 5 large apricots (or 7 small), sliced into wedges
  • 2 to 4 ounces crumbled blue cheese (2 if it’s sharp, 4 if it’s mild)***
  • 15 ounce can of cannellini beans (or other white beans), rinsed and strained
  • 1/3 cup ground or finely chopped raw pistachios

Instructions

  1. Remove the stems of the cilantro by grabbing the leafy part and twisting it off. Discard the big stems, wash the leaves, and then dry them really well with a salad spinner or a towel.
  2. Mince the garlic in a food processor (you might have to scrape down the sides and pulse a couple more times). Add the cilantro and olive oil to the garlic in the food processor, and blend until very finely minced, nearly puréed. Add the lemon juice, salt, and pepper, and blend for about a minute, until everything comes together smoothly. Taste and adjust the seasoning.
  3. Place the arugula in the bottom of a salad bowl, and toss with a few spoon-fulls of the dressing. Then add the apricots, blue cheese, beans, and pistachios. Drizzle with the rest of the dressing (or to taste), toss everything together, and enjoy.

Notes

* If you can’t stand cilantro, this dressing works well with parsley too. You’ll have to be a little more careful about removing the big stems (cilantro stems are way more tender). You could even use parsley and basil, or all basil. If you use all basil, it will dominate the flavor of the salad, which is different but still super tasty.

** The easiest way to do this is to use a liquid measuring cup, and pour halfway between 1/4 and 1/2 cup.

*** If you don’t like blue cheese, another crumbly cheese will work great here. Try bulgarian feta (or any feta really), cotija (use a smaller amount, because it’s nice and salty), chèvre/fresh goat cheese, or even some parmesan or pecorino shavings (again, so salty—use less). If you want to make this vegan, feel free to leave out the cheese altogether. If you leave out the cheese, add a teeny tiny bit more garlic to the dressing (like, 1 more small clove), and toast the ground pistachios until they’re very light golden brown (toast them over the stove at medium heat in about 1/2 teaspoon olive oil, stirring constantly until they’re ready, and then remove them to a plate).

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