Add Pureed Pickles To Your Coleslaw

A good coleslaw knows no season. If you’ve saturated your palate with the usual, slightly sweet slaw dressing this winter, try mixing things up with the some salty and sour pickles.

Pickled coleslaw is delicious with all smoked or grilled meats, but it’s particularly effective with spicier stuff. If you’re working with vinegar pickles, you can swap out the plain vinegar called for in the recipe with an equal amount of pickle juice, or you can really amplify the flavour with pureed pickles.

The puree brings the tang usually provided by vinegar, but it also adds a bit of cucumbery freshness, garlicky goodness, and the flavours of whatever else the pickle happened to be swimming in. Just chuck a pickle into the blender, whirr it into a puree, then replace the vinegar in your recipe with an equal amount of pickle puree.

Depending on how vinegary your pickles are, you might need to add a small amount of white vinegar, so taste and adjust as needed. Add some fresh dill, and you have a cool and creamy slaw dressing with a pronounced pickle flavour. To it, you will need:

• 1 large vinegar pickle (I like Clausen)

• 1/4 cup sour cream

• 1/4 cup mayo

• 1 tablespoon of fresh dill

• 1 tablespoon of white vinegar (optional)

Place the pickle in a high-power blender and blend it into a puree, scraping down the sides as needed to make sure all the little pickle bits get blender up. Add everything except the vinegar in a medium bowl or measuring cup and stir to combine.

Taste, and add the vinegar if needed. Give it one more stir, let it hang out in the fridge for an hour to let the flavours meld, then dress your slaw mix (cole, broccoli, or other), pouring on a little bit at a time and tossing until it’s completely coated. Serve immediately.