I finally got (most) of the dried fruit needed to make this salad. I say "most" because it calls for dried pears which I've never even seen before! I figured I'd just sub some dried apples, but they're apparently on the "do not order" list at the local Bulk Barn right now, so that was a bust. In the end, I ended up lightly oven-drying an apple and an Anjou pear and using those in my salad and I think that worked quited well!

Winter Cabbage and Dried Fruit Salad

Slightly adapted from Vegetable of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 500g (~1/2 a head) red cabbage, shredded
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/4 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 5-6 Tbsp. red wine or apple cider vinegar
• 5 dried apricots, chopped
• 5 dried figs, chopped
• 5 dried prunes, chopped
• 1-2 dried pears¹, chopped
• 1 dried apple, chopped (optional)
• 1 tart apple, julienned
• 1-2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1/8 tsp. cumin seeds, ground
• 1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2-1 tsp. sugar
• 2-3 Tbsp. walnuts², chopped (optional)

Directions

1. Toss the cabbage with the salt, pepper, and vinegar, cover, and let stand at room temperature for 2 hours (or overnight in the fridge).
2. Add the apricots, figs, prunes, dried pear(s), and dried apple (if using).
3. Add the fresh apple, olive oil, cumin, cinnamon, 1/2 tsp. of sugar, and the walnuts (if using).
4. Taste and adjust sugar, salt, pepper, vinegar, and oil as desired.

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¹ The original recipe calls for 5 dried pears! That seems like an insane amount to me. Maybe they meant 5 slices of dried pear. I ended up putting in 1 pear and 1 apple (plus the fresh apple) and that seemed about right to me. So, I think 2 dried apples/pears total is probably about right. ^Back
2 Normally when ingredients are listed as "optional", I always add it. But in this case I actually thought it would be nice with just the cabbage and fruit without the nuts. ^Back