Arrowhead Cabbage Salad with Honey Mustard and Rye Crouton.

This salad is a house favorite at the Culinary Vegetable Institute. I was inspired to produce this salad the minute I saw we were growing it because of a restaurant in Nashville called Butcher and Bee. They served a tender salad of cabbage treated like a Caesar. 

We typically cook or ferment cabbage in the kitchens today. There just aren't that many raw applications. There's coleslaw and other cultural slaws (essentially a shaved salad dressed) There's a traditional Vietnamese salad called Goi Ga (shaved and lightly dressed, served with chicken or tofu) and raw cabbage can often be seen in Mexican dishes as an accompaniment to soups or stews but it's basically a condiment. 

This is our cabbage on the pedestal. Quartered and very lightly charred on both sides, dressed and topped with flowers and herbs. 

Servings: 4

Prep Time and Cook Time: 12 minutes

Source: Culinary Vegetable Institute at The Chef's Garden

Ingredients:

For the Chopped Herbs and Flowers:

• ¼ package micro herbs
• ¼ package mixed edible flowers

For the Cabbage Salad:

• 1 head arrowhead cabbage

For the Honey Mustard:

• ¼ cup raw honey
• ¼ cup (70g) whole-grain mustard
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 medium shallot, finely diced
• 1 splash of water

For the Rye Crouton:

• 3 slices rye or pumpernickel bread
• 1 tsp vegetable oil.
• Salt

Directions:

• For the Cabbage Salad:
• Quarter the head of cabbage lengthwise.
• In a very hot cast iron pan or grill, place the cabbage cut side down. When light charring occurs, turn the head to the other cut side and remove when equal light charring occurs.
• Season with salt and set aside.
• Reduce the heat of the pan to medium heat.

For the Honey Mustard:

• Combine all ingredients for the honey mustard in a small bowl.
• Adjust the viscosity with additional water if needed (mustard and honey varies in viscosity) The dressing should be spoonable and fluid.

For the Rye Crouton:

• Slice the bread into strips the width of the slices.
• Dice the strips into squares the width of the slices. Cook in the same cast iron pan until crisp.
• Add the vegetable oil and coat evenly.
• Lightly fry the croutons until crisp throughout.
• Season with salt and remove from heat. 

For the Chopped Herbs and Flowers:

• Lightly chop the herbs and flowers together to resemble a loose coarse confetti. 
• To Assemble and Serve:
• Transfer the cabbages to four plates, cut side up. Spoon the dressing over the cabbages evenly distributing all of it. Top with the croutons and chopped herbs. Serve with a fork and knife.