Spinach Tiger loves ground beef. It’s our go to for easy meals that are fast, but not fast food. A meal like this can be made in about twenty minutes, Those of us who don’t want to rely on processed or frozen food need these ideas.  

Crack slaw is one of those easy, approachable recipes that is a savior when you’re eating low carb and you’re short on time. I’m not sure where this was invented or created. There are many recipes for it on the web and everyone puts their own spin on it.

My take for crack slaw is to slather it with an easy three-ingredient comeback sauce.

One of the ways I like crack slaw is to use a mixture of ground beef and ground pork because it makes me feel like I’m eating an egg roll. You can choose your ground meat. Most use beef, but the pork adds in a little extra flavor, resembling more of  that egg roll taste.

How to Make Crack Slaw with Comeback Sauce

It generally start with a little olive oil or avocado oil with some garlic, followed by ground meat. Once the meat is browned, l’ll add in the cabbage, fresh ginger, sesame oil, tamari or soy sauce. My secret for crack slaw is using my own homemade comeback sauce at the end.

Tip for Browning Ground Beef

This is a great tip that actually works for browning ground beef. I don’t know why it works, but it does.

• Add 1/4 teaspoon baking soda to 2 tablespoons water. Pour over raw beef and wait 15 minutes before frying.

The Comeback Sauce

My comeback sauce is pretty simple. I use sriracha, mayonnaise, and a touch of soy sauce (tamari). I’ve seen recipes with a long list of ingredients, but this does it for me. I’ve tried adding in various ingredients and they did not work!

The ratio is mayo/sriracha is 4/1 and the tamari is to taste. You may want to add a tablespoon of tamari, but I would start with a teaspoon at a time. It’s so good.  It has the acid, fat and salt necesary. Creamy, tangy, and cool enough to counteract some of the heat in the crack slaw.

So tell me, do you have a secret sauce recipe? I’d love to hear about it.

More Ground Beef Ideas

• Ground Beef Cabbage Stir Fry
• Stuffed Cabbage
• Ground Beef with Peas and Onions, (most popular recipe).
• Ground Beef Stuffed Peppers
• Sautéed Cabbage with Bacon and Onion
• Beef Cabbage Soup

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Crack Slaw with with Three Ingredient Comeback Sauce Recipe

An easy ground beef and shredded cabbage dish, using bagged cole slaw mix, sesame oil, sriracha and ginger.

Course Entree

Cuisine American

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Total Time 25 minutes minutes

Servings 6

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

Prep Ground Meat

• 1/3 teaspoon baking soda
• 3 tablespoons water
• 1 tablespoon olive oil or avocado oil more if needed once the slaw is added
• 3 cloves garlic minced
• 1 pound ground beef see notes
• 1/2 pound ground pork
• salt pepper
• 1 bag cole slaw mix shredded cabbage
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 tablespoon sriracha

Comeback Sauce

• 8 tablespoons mayonnaise
• 2 tablespoons sriracha
• 1 tablespoon tamari sauce or soy sauce more if needed

Instructions

• Mix baking soda and water. Pour over meat. Wait 15 minutes before cooking. This helps to brown the meat. In meantime, gather rest of ingredients.
• Saute the garlic in the oil just to soften.
• Add ground beef that has been seasoned with salt and pepper
• After meat is browned, add in the cole slaw mix.
• Mix thoroughly. It will seem like a lot of cabbage, but it will cook down.
• Add in sesame oil, ground ginger, sriraacha.
• Season to taste. You may need to add more oil.

Comeback Sauce

• Mix mayonnaise and sriracha together.
• Add tamari sauce one teaspoon at a time. Add as much as you need to taste, but not so much as to make this salty.

Notes

You can mix half ground pork, half ground beef for more flavor

The post Crack Slaw with Comeback Sauce Recipe appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

Here are some of the best ones from 2012 and a few from way back when.

You’re so Nashville if you can’t actually identify the items in your weekly delivery of organic CSA produce. —Debbie Settles (When I moved here 14 years ago, the clerk at the grocery store couldn’t identify half of my produce. Honey, that’s eggplant).

You’re so Nashville if  your 52-year-old ponytail is longer than your 22-year-old girlfriend’s. —Dave Weil (And the sad thing about that is he’s probably bald in the front. BTW, the not bald Mr. ST, a Nashville native,  had the longer hair when we met.)

You’re so Nashville if the characters in your church’s Nativity scene look exactly like Fleetwood Mac. —Matt North (And you’re so Nashville because you know what a Nativity scene is).

You’re so Nashville you will eat anything, edible or not, provided it is served with Bento (and, you’re so Nashville that you know bento is bacon and not an Asian lunch box.)

You’re so Nashville if you never meant to stay here this long. —Robert Jetton (The fate of 50% of us who now live here).

You’re so Nashville if  towns you’ve never heard of are going to be hit by a tornado at 6:51, 6:53 and 7:01 p.m. —Rick Hagey (If you watched the weather channel the way we Nashvillian’s do, hoping the tornado siren doesn’t go off, you would get this.)

I was challenged to cook vegan. I admit, this didn’t make me happy, at first. But now I’m so glad, because I learned a lot and I’m proud of my contribution.  It made me step out of my comfort zone, and stretch myself, even if I still stayed true to my cooking viewpoint.

Hot chicken is a Nashville invention and local specialty, so why not Hot Tofu

It’s a very spicy chicken typically served with a slice of white bread and pickles, first made by Andre Prince of Prince’s Hot Chicken which is legendary, including the one hour wait, as hot chicken must be prepared fresh and is spiced right as it comes out of the deep fryer.

This year’s January edition of Food and Wine Magazine did a feature called Nashville in 10 Plates, and Hot Chicken at Hattie B’s is the first bite they mention, as there are now several “hot chicken” places around town. I’ve also heard that Bolton’s is one to try.

I did a little research to see how hot chicken was made.  Marinated in buttermilk, the chicken is floured and deep fried. Lard and cayenne pepper are mixed into a paste and then rubbed onto the fried chicken while it’s still hot. Some of the hot chicken served around town is so hot, men cry.

My first hot chicken experience was from the Biscuit Love Truck and I was immediately smitten. I graduated to hot fish at Puckett’s Boat House and had to go back a week later to have it again.

Whatever fancy schmancy food comes to Nashville, people will seek out folksy food with Southern roots.  Although this is vegan and it’s tofu, I’m sure that the Nashville foodies would embrace it.

Vegan Hot Tofu for the Creative Cooking Crew

Instead of lard and cayenne, I chose sriracha sauce to smear onto marinated and chicken fried tofu. While deep frying is necessary for hot chicken, I’ve seen “hot” fish served either fried, blackened or grilled and you can do the same thing with the tofu.

I loved my spicy tofu. I ate every piece I made, and thought it was equally good with the pickles or kale salad, as the important thing is pairing it with something acidic. A friend sent me some homemade sweet and spicy pickles for Christmas, which were so unusual with a crispy bite and spicy hit and just spot on as an accompaniment.

How to Best Make Tofu from a Virgin Tofu Cook

It took me three tries to get this tofu dish right. I’m just lucky enough to have a great foodie friend living next store, who happens to be Asian, and just happened to  have just purchased Andrea Nguyen’s cookbook, Asian Tofu. It’s a fabulous book that, while approachable for the tofu novice, holds enough meat for foodie geek that I am. After two tofu failures, I read through Andrea Nguyen’s tips and got it right.

The surprise part was in the initial seasoning of the tofu. After cutting 3/4 inch squares of extra firm tofu, it is placed in a shallow dish followed by salted boiling water which must completely cover the tofu. After 15 minutes, the tofu is then placed on a waffle cloth (or paper towels) covered and drained of moisture.

One of my failures was trying to get bread crumbs to stick to the tofu to get a crispy, crunchy crust. Andra recommends potato starch to pan fry or deep fry tofu. I used corn starch, which worked out perfectly.

In further experimentation, I fried the tofu two ways. First, I used a cast iron pot and deep fried the tofu. This works well. The corn starch sticks to the tofu and unlike flour, doesn’t burn.

In one of the other recipes in the book, tofu is pan fried in a non-stick pan. I tried this method, still marinating and using corn starch and  I was happy to discover that it tasted just as crispy and good as the deep-frying method. This is how I’ll write the recipe. It’s healthy, and the only way I’ll prepare it from now on.

Nashville Hot Tofu Sliders

In searching for the white bread for the hot tofu, I found mini rolls, called silver dollars. Thus, hot tofu, Nashville style, became Hot tofu sliders.

The proof in the worthiness of this dish is my friend’s text. I delivered this basket  to her and she texted back, “delicious,” and the foodie geek in her asked me a bunch of questions as to how I executed such a great snack. We agreed that in the very near future, we are headed to one of the joints in Nashville that is famous for hot chicken.

Another way to enjoy hot tofu, Southern style,  is with a kale salad and apple salad and sweet potatoes.

Please tell me if you’ve had Nashville Hot Chicken, and where you had it. My favorite place so far is Hattie B’s and I wrote about it here.

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Nashville Style Hot Tofu Sliders with Spicy Pickles

A Southern twist on tofu, inspired by Nashville's hot chicken.

Course Vegan Main

Cuisine American

Prep Time 40 minutes minutes

Cook Time 6 minutes minutes

Total Time 46 minutes minutes

Servings 4

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

• 1 block of extra firm tofu
• 2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 cups boiling water
• 1 tablespoons grapeseed or canola oil may use less
• 1/2 cup corn starch (might need a little more
• sriracha approximately 1 teaspoon for each slice of tofu
• mini rolls or white bread
• pickles slices
• pickles 3 per slider

Instructions

• Cut tofu into 3/4 inch slices
• Season boiling water with salt and cayenne pepper.
• Place tofu in baking dish. Pour water over tofu and let sit for 15 minutes.
• Remove tofu, place on cloth (waffle towel works well) or paper towels and drain for 15 minutes. Cover tofu on both sides, making sure to gently press out the moisture.
• Using a non-stick pan, put grapeseed oil in frying pan. Using medium heat, get pan hot. Cover tofu pieces with corn starch, only right before you pan fry or tofu will get too much moisture. Fry for a few minutes on each side until golden brown.
• Remove to plate with paper towels and immediately brush with sriracha sauce on each side.Rub sriracha onto the tofu, while it is still hot. Serve immediately.
• To make sliders, use soft mini white rolls or use white bread, cut into circles or squares, no crust.
• Serve with bread and pickles.

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This title is misleading. All salmon, if made properly should taste like butter, only better. The naturally occurring omega 3’s in salmon make it a “good fat” fatty fish, that needs little fuss. When salmon is overcooked, and it often is, it loses it’s flavor and appeal.

Did you know that if you see that white stuff coming out of the salmon as it cooks, it means you are in serious danger of overcooking your fish?. That white stuff is a protein, albumin. As the fish cooks, it coagulates and it’s visible appearance is the sign the fish is done.

We like to get it off the grill BEFORE it comes out, because fish continues to cook and the perfect salmon is not cooked a second longer than it needs to. You can see the texture in the center of the fish in the picture. The salmon is cooked through, but just not a minute more than it needs to be, so it is very tender, buttery and not anything at all like the too often overcooked ruined fish we used to make.

On ordinary days when I’ve just worked out for 60-90 minutes, a girl’s gotta eat and it’s not going to be a drive through. For about the same price as a super-sized meal, I can light the grill, and eat super healthy. Who wants to put all that effort into working out to ruin it?

Did you know that after a good workout, your metabolism is higher and your body wants protein? But good fat is a girl’s best friend, not just for the omega 3 health benefits, but the satisfaction the brain feels and tells you that you are no longer hungry. Every time you eat, you feed your brain. That’s a lot to think about. I am no scientist, but I understand in simple terms that your brain gets signals to stop or continue eating.

Protein, healthy fat and good carbohydrate combinations gives your brain a stop sign, while sugar and empty calorie foods confuse the brain and keep sending out hunger signals, which is why you could eat a whole cake and still be hungry.

It’ s a little harder to eat 1000 calories of fresh wild fish and a purple sweet potato. This kind of  lunch is so good that your body immediately knows it was treated right, and your brain gives you a signal that you’re satisfied. Your senses are happy too, because this food is so much more appetizing and rewarding.

Wild or farmed?  I’m a wild girl, but Whole Foods stocks a Norwegian farmed salmon that is a good option. Look for their stamp that says “responsibly farmed.” Not all farmed fish is created equal, and because I know the commitment from Whole Foods regarding their seafood, I trust what they sell. They sell it frozen in six packs, each individually wrapped. There are no bones. The taste is mild.

I have suggested a marinade. That’s not as important as cooking method, and you could simply use salt and pepper, if that is your preference.

Tell me, what is your favorite super food that you tend to eat a lot of?

More Salmon from Spinach Tiger

Ginger Roasted Salmon with Orange Roasted Beets

Salmon with Shoe String Sweet Potatoes and Crispy Kale

Pan Fried Salmon with Jalapeno Peach Sauce

Salmon with Tarragon Pea Mash

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Skinny Grill Salmon that Tastes Like Butter

How to Grill Salmon. How to Pan fry Salmon

Course Entree

Cuisine American

Prep Time 35 minutes minutes

Cook Time 8 minutes minutes

Total Time 43 minutes minutes

Servings 1

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

• wild or responsibly farmed salmon with skin about 1 inch thick
• 1 teaspoon maple syrup see notes
• 1 teaspoon low sodium soy sauce
• splash chili oil or sriracha
• sea salt freshly ground pepper

Instructions

• Heat grill to very high (over 400 degrees)
• Make sure grill is very clean, and sprayed down with cooking spray, or brushed with oil.
• Marinate salmon for 30 minutes with a marinade of maple syrup, soy sauce, sriracha. Season with salt and pepper.
• Place salmon on hot grill top side down for 2-3 minutes. Turn over and turn grill down to medium heat. Continue to grill for 4-5 minutes. If the white albumin starts coming out, take off grill immediately. You should have a very crispy skin underneath.
• PAN FRYING SALMON
• This is the one time I like to use a good non-stick pan.
• Heat frying pan on medium heat. Add a tiny bit of oil (salmon is fatty, doesn't need much). Once pan is hot, add salmon skin side down, cook just until the salmon loosen from the pan, 2-4 minutes. Turn over for another 2-4 minutes. Remove from pan immediately.

Notes

You do not need to add anything to good salmon except salt and pepper. These flavorings are options.

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