Barefoot Contessa's Blue Cheese Coleslaw

I can't remember if I mentioned that my awesome mom got me an awesome birthday present. It's something I've been coveting for awhile now but never in a million years ever thought anyone would buy it for me. She got me the Cuisinart Elite food processor. Lordy mama, I was so flippin' excited!! My friend Jen came over for a food gadget play date last week so we could break it in. I also got the food grinder attachment for my KitchenAid mixer from my aunt and uncle that I'm dying to try, but we ran out of time to play with that one. Her darn twin baby girls needed to be fed and she had to beg and plead with me to give one of them a bottle. Yeah right...who am I kidding. I went and got the one she wasn't feeding out of her car seat and popped the bottle in her mouth. I'm a complete sucker for babies--especially super cute girl babies. Anyway, we made a guacamole recipe that came with the food processor, and it was pretty good, but I was still dying to play with it more. Jen had mentioned we should do something with blue cheese because her husband doesn't like it, so she never gets to eat it, but sadly I didn't have any on hand. I did, however, remember this Barefoot Contessa recipe I had seen and promptly went to the store over the weekend to get some so I could make it because it's a very food processor heavy recipe. Woo hoo! First, a picture of my new toy:



Now, on to the recipe. Conveniently it's posted on the Food Network website and on the Barefoot Contessa website. But I'll go ahead and post it here, too.

Blue Cheese Coleslaw
Copyright, 2006 Barefoot Contessa at Home, All Rights Reserved

½ small head green cabbage
½ small head red cabbage
4 large carrots
2 cups good mayonnaise
¼ cup Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons whole-grain mustard
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon celery salt
½ teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1½ cups crumbled Roquefort (6 ounces)
1 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Cut the cabbage halves in half and cut out the cores. Set up the food processor with the slicing blade and place the pieces of cabbage horizontally in the feed tube, one at a time. (If they don’t fit, cut them to fit lying down.) Insert the feed tube pusher and turn on the processor, but don’t press on the feed tube pusher or the slices will turn out too thick! Continue with the remaining red and green cabbage. Transfer to a large bowl, discarding any very large pieces. Before you pour the dressing on the salad, save a handful of the grated vegetables to decorate for serving.

Change the slicing blade for the large shredding blade and cut the carrots so they will fit horizontally into the feed tube. Replace the feed tube pusher and press firmly with the food processor on. Transfer the shredded carrots to bowl with the cabbages.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, two mustards, vinegar, celery salt, kosher salt, and pepper. Pour enough mayonnaise dressing over the grated vegetables to moisten, and toss well. Add the Roquefort and the parsley and toss together. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for several hours to allow the flavors to meld. Serve cold or at room temperature. Garnish with the reserved granted vegetables.

*****

I only had a head of green cabbage, so I just used the whole thing instead of getting purple as well. I also couldn't find the celery salt in my pantry, so that got left out of mine. Now, I want to point out something very important in the instructions above:

Pour enough mayonnaise dressing over the grated vegetables to moisten, and toss well.

Note that it does not say to pour in ALL of the dressing, which is what I did. I'm just trying to save you all from the same mistake I made. And of course I read that part as soon as the last drop of dressing was in my big mixing bowl. Sigh.

In spite of my oversight, this coleslaw was awesome. I of course had a taste once I took it out of the fridge and was instantly in love. So I kept taking more test bites just to make sure it was all okay. Then I called the husband over to make sure he liked it--and he kept doing the same, even though it was really, really wet and had way too much dressing on it.

This is definitely something that I'll make again, only I'll gradually add in the dressing. It was really fine the night we had it, but leftovers the next day and day after that were really too soggy to enjoy.