Serves 4–6

This salady-side truly goes with everything, which is great because it allows flexibility when I become predictably paralyzed by too many options. While the possibilities may be endless, I can say from personal experience that it goes excellently with: burned hot dogs in the park, roasted chicken on the stoop, tinned fish and a soft egg for “work from home lunch” (lol all the lunches are work from home) and the falafel I buy down the street. Eat it raw as a salady slaw, grill it then dress it for more of a side vibe, or do either and let it sit for days on end for a marinated fridge snack: this salad wears many hats. 

1 preserved lemon or 1 regular lemon, seeds removed, thinly sliced 

1 garlic clove, finely grated or 2 scallions, thinly sliced 

A few dashes of fish sauce (skip it if you don’t have or enjoy fish sauce)

1 lemon, halved for more juicing

Kosher salt, freshly ground pepper 

1 small head red cabbage

1-2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil

Olive oil, for drizzling 

3-4 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds

FOR SALAD:

1. Combine preserved lemon, garlic and a few dashes of fish sauce in a large bowl. Add the juice of ½ a lemon and let sit a minute or two. 

2. Coarsely chop or thinly slice the cabbage, depending if you want more salad or slaw. Add it to the bowl with the dressing and season with salt and pepper. Not-so-delicately massage it for a minute or two to deeply season and soften the cabbage into submission. 

3. Add sesame oil and season again with more lemon, sesame (or olive) oil or fish sauce as you see fit and finish with sesame seeds.

   FOR GRILLING: 

4. Preheat your grill to high. Cut the cabbage into 2”-ish thick wedges (keep the root in tact so the leaves don’t fall apart when you grill), drizzle with a little olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill the cabbage on all sides until lightly charred, kind of tender but definitely still crunchy, 10-12 minutes or so, depending on your grill. I like to kind of fan out the leaves when I flip them so the inner leaves get a little charred, too.

5. Meanwhile, combine preserved lemon, garlic and a few dashes of fish sauce in a medium bowl. Add the juice of ½ a lemon and let sit a minute or two. 

6. Once the cabbage comes off the grill, you can coarsely chop it for more of a salad or leave in wedges for more of a side. Dress it with the preserved lemon mixture and finish with sesame seeds.