i made this salad recently and i just have to talk about it.

last week i made spring rolls and i used purple cabbage in them. but when i was done with the rolls i still had like 7/8ths of a cabbage left and nothing to do with it. so yesterday i started looking for recipes that you can use red cabbage in........ and i was really disappointed. it was mostly coleslaws or braised cabbage or other things that didn't seem all that appealing to me. so i decided to improvise and make a red cabbage salad out of whatever veggies/ingredients i thought would taste good. and man....... it was incredible!!!!!
i'm gonna share the recipe mostly for my own future reference but also just in case anyone reading this wants to try a tasty lunch (that also happens to be vegan!) :) so here are the ingredients:

Veggies:

• 1 purple cabbage
• 1 big red pepper
• 1 big red onion
• about 1/2 a large cucumber (or you could use the whole thing if u wanted)

Other ingredients:

• block of medium-firm tofu
• 1 pan-full of sliced almonds
• 1 can chickpeas
• 1 bottle chili oil

Sauce ingredients:
SOURCE: @biteswithbecs on tiktok
(rough measurements)

• 3/4 cup peanut butter
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup rice vinegar
• 1 tbs brown sugar or honey
• 2-3 tbs chili oil
• 1-2 tbs lime juice
• 2 cloves garlic
• some fresh ginger
• water*

so since it's a salad you can imagine most of the "prep" is basically just cutting vegetables and putting them in a bowl. and that's largely true, so i'll start by explaining how i prepared the non-veggie ingredients.
to prepare the tofu:

1. preheat oven to 400F
2. pat the tofu dry with a towel until its not dripping anymore
3. cut it up into roughly 1 inch cubes
4. line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and if you want you can put a thin layer of oil on it
5. put the tofu chunks on the parchment. since it's medium-firm tofu they are pretty delicate
6. take a spoon and drop a little dab of chili oil on each piece of tofu. its important to make sure u put a bit of oil on every piece because the tofu will soak up the flavor as it bakes and u don't want any to be left behind. i was pretty liberal when i put it on because i love chili oil. if you're not a fan of chili oil (wtf) you could use whatever other seasoning you want but make sure u dtill drizzle a bit of some other oil on them so they have some fat to cook in.
7. sprinkle salt on top to taste
8. bake for roughly 30 mins but keep an eye on it. the texture i wanted was firm (not crispy) on the outside and still soft in the middle. add more time if you want them crispier!

to toast the almonds:

1. change the oven setting to like 375 or so
2. spread the almonds evenly on an ungreased pan
3. put in the oven for like 3 mins, take them out and give them a toss, then put them back in for a few more mins
4. keep a close eye on them bc theyll burn quickly. once theyre just slightly browned ur good to go

to make the salad:

1. ok this part is pretty self explanatory u just chop the veggies and throw em together. the cabbage is super annoying to chop but i tried to get it into small-ish pieces so i cut the entire cabbage into fourths and sliced from there. and i cut out the core and some of the larger, more stemmy bits. the onions and peppers and cucumbers i diced pretty small.
2. let the tofu and almonds cool down a bit while u do this. when they're not super hot anymore toss em in
3. drain your can of chickpeas and throw them in. i typically rinse them for a while to try to get some of the skins to fall off

the sauce:

taylor sent this sauce recipe to me and i've been making it to put on everything ever since. it's soo good!!! the full recipe explanation is in the video linked above but basically u just combine all the ingredients and stir em up.

*what's important for this recipe is i added a fair amount of water to the sauce to make it super thin, kind of like a glaze or vinaigrette. don't add the water all at once, just like a tablespoon at a time until it's the consistency u want.

and that's it!! when it's done its extremely colourful and pretty, and it's literally the tastiest salad i can ever remember eating. the sauce is DELICIOUS!! if you're not a fan of peanut sauce (wtf) i also had a bowl with some storebought "creamy cucumber" dressing and it was also really good :) i should have taken a photo but i totally forgot. next time i make it i'll add a photo to this post.

let me know if u try this!!