Tiger Slaw

I came up with this dish as part of my ongoing series "Finding Non-meat Things to Put Inside Various Forms of Flat Bread."

I used to dislike radishes. I think it's because they have kind of a harsh bite to them. I'm not one to just slice up a radish and eat it raw. I know radishes and herb butter are a classic French combination, and that sounded good to me. But anything I make has to be eaten as leftovers throughout the week. Eating herb butter multiple days in a row is probably not the best nutrition plan.

Since radishes have a kind of bite to them, I figured putting them in some kind of salad or slaw-like preparation where you would normally use something like onions seemed like a logical step. Enter tiger slaw! Get it? Because the radishes have a bite? And it's black and orange? Yeah, not funny, I know.

I love the combination of black beans and cumin. I'm trying to find alternatives to mayo-based salads, so I opted for sour cream, which I think goes great with the smoky cumin.  You don't need much sour cream, so it's not nearly as gloppy (technical term) as a regular may-based slaw would be.

Notes: Grated carrots and radishes will end up containing a lot of water. If you don't want your slaw to be on the wet side, line a fine-mesh strainer with some paper towels or coffee filters and let the shredded veggies drain for a few minutes. That will help get rid of some of the excess liquid.

If you like cilantro (and you really should because it's delicious), that would work really well here. I didn't have any at the time or else I would have added it myself.

As an aside, this would be a totally fun dish to serve at a Halloween pot luck.

Ingredients:
4 small carrots
5 or six radishes
1 15 oz. can of black beans
2 tablespoons of sour cream
1 teaspoon cumin
1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh tarragon
Salt
Pepper

Directions:

First, rinse your beans with cold water in a fine-mesh strainer. Drain while you're grating your veggies.

Peel the carrots and trim the rough ends off the radishes.

 
Grate them with a box grater (using the medium sized holes). I just grated mine right into the container I used to store the slaw. This step requires elbow grease.

Pretty colors

Add the black beans and mix. Next add the sour cream and sprinkle the tarragon and cumin on top. Season with salt and pepper.

Mix well and store in an air-tight container in the fridge

Serve in a pita pocket or a wheat wrap. Or, just eat it like a regular slaw. Enjoy!