Gingered Napa Cabbage Salad

I think I've been in a cooking slump caused by spring vacation and a lot of busy-ness. But now I'm getting back on track.

I recently saw a report on some research about cruciferous vegetables and cancer rates. It said that when people increased their amount of unrefined fruits and vegetables that they ate by 20% that their cancer rate went down by 20%. But if for people who increased their intake of cruciferous vegetables by 20% the rate of cancer went down by 40%! Wow!

What are cruciferous vegetables? They are the ones from the cabbage family, including the cabbages of course, broccoli, califlower, turnips, brusselsprouts, radishes, kale, arugula, bok choy, collards, mustard greens, rutabaga, watercress, diakon and more. The next time I went to the store I looked around at all these powerful veggies and realized that I didn't put many of them in my cart. So, now I am trying to make sure we have one every day, and that it isn't the same one. We are branching out and trying new ones and new recipes for the more familiar ones.

What did we eat today? Gingered Napa Cabbage Salad. It was one I made up as I made it, but my daughter said it was really, really good. I know, she doesn't have average taste buds, but this was a new vegetable for her as for my son. What did he say? He was eagerly ate the remains in the salad bowl and asked for more.

Here is how to make it:

Gingered Napa Cabbage Salad
By Barbara Frohne
wildflowermorningrecipes.blogspot.com

1 small to medium head of Napa Cabbage
1 inch knob of fresh ginger, peeled
juice of one fresh lime
1/3 cup water
1/4 cup old fashioned peanut butter
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
2 TBSP honey

With a large knife, finely slice the napa cabbage into slivers. Place the cabbage into a large salad bowl.

Place the remaining ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth. Pour over the cabbage and mix.

Divide into serving bowls. Serves 3 to 10 people. My two kids and I ate it all ourselves today.