As a child, Boxing Day heralded endless ads on television imploring us to book holidays – nowadays, the emphasis is on food and health.  Whilst I fully endorse looking after ourselves both physically and nutritionally, I find you can take a horse to water but….

So, no bossy dictates here about joining a gym or weighing protein, as ever, I am only interested in eating well.  It’s certainly true that post Christmas a lot of us feel like a reset, putting away the mince pies and getting some fresh air.  That said, the minute I am told I can’t have anything, well, that tends to be the only thing I want.  A little self discipline and sense is all that is needed to get us back on the straight and narrow and where better to start than a revitalising, crunchy winter slaw.

I aim to eat a salad of some kind daily throughout the year.  Soft butterhead lettuce and tomato versions in the summer and ones more suited to winter veg in the colder months.  Right now I hopping between a favourite carrot salad – the work of minutes and fortunately one that everyone likes.  Or this, equally simple but with a few more ingredients.  It barely counts as a recipe, particularly as you can chop and change ingredients to suit what you have.  The picture here shows a version with white cabbage, carrots, apple, seeds and some sultanas.  The herbs looking for a home were parsley and dill this time and the whole thing was turned in an olive oil and lemon juice dressing.  I soaked the sultanas briefly in hot water to plump them up but otherwise it was just a case of chopping and mixing.

I would happily eat this for lunch or on the side with supper.  It is ideal to add to my pulled pork recipe (July 2019) and works a treat with any cold meats.   Change the herbs depending on what you have in the fridge, use red cabbage if that is to hand.  Some segments of blood orange would be fabulously seasonal here and I would never turn down some shreds of celeriac.   If you are looking for another use for red cabbage then my red cabbage, radish and herb salad (January 2020) is an absolute winner and the Christmas salad (December 2013) is, like a puppy, not just for Christmas.  Happy New Year.