Carol,

Every recipe for freezer slaw in every book I have is the same and calls for 2 cups of sugar. However, since you're freezing and not canning, I would think you could alter the recipe without it being a safety issue. Without sugar, though, it will be pretty tangy because of the vinegar and spices. I have a friend who cuts the sugar in half and likes it just fine. I also don't see why you couldn't replace some or all of the sugar with a sugar substitute like Stevia or Truvia or Splenda.

You probably could Google using a phrase like 'sugar-free freezer cole slaw' or 'diabetic freezer cole slaw' and come up with a recipe that has no sugar, or low sugar.Or, you could go to the Harvest Forum and ask if anyone there has a sugar-free freezer slaw recipe.

Dawn

Here's a recipe for sugar-free freezer slaw that I found on Cook's Corner:

Sugar Free Freezer Slaw

1 large head of cabbage, or 2 small

2 tsp. salt

1 cup carrots shredded or chopped

1 cup vinegar

¼ cup water

2 cups splenda

2 tsp. celery seed

1 tsp. ground mustard

Finely chop cabbage and put in a colander in the sink, then sprinkle with salt and let sit for 1 hour. Meanwhile warm vinegar and water on stove with celery seed and ground mustard (ground mustard adds a little bite, so if you donÂt like it spicy just omit). When vinegar mixture is warm add splenda and stir until it is dissolved, let cool. After 1 hour rinse cabbage well and shake dry and put in a big bowl. Add carrots and coat with vinegar mixture. Put in a large freezer safe container and freeze. Take out of freezer 2 hours before serving.

Anna

I have never had freezer slaw so I don't know what to expect, but the recipes I found all had 2 cups of sugar and that just sounded wrong. I do need to watch my sugar intake, but I probably won't eat enough of it to be a problem. The problem is that DH doesn't like any veggie to taste sweet, and in most cases neither do I.

When we lived in Ohio, neither of us would order a tomato based dish because all of them had sugar in them and we didn't like that. I am not real comfortable with any of the sugar substitutes although I use Splenda occasionally, and I do drink diet pop (and probably shouldn't).

I have a regular slaw recipe that has a vinagar and sugar base like the freezer slaw does and I cut the sugar in half, but it has far less sugar than this recipe anyway.

What kind of product do you have when you eat this slaw. Is the cabbage still crisp? I like the idea, but I don't know if I will actually like the slaw. Maybe I should make one and try it. It's not like I am overrun with cabbage heads, but I have about 5 green heads out there and the purple heads have started to head up a little now, so that is more than we can eat fresh. I just thought I might do something with the white ones.

I am just about to talk myself out of the slaw idea, and I may just go cook a cornbeef and make a big pan of cabbage. I haven't had that for awhile and it sounds good.

When we lived in Colorado we made sauerkraut in a jar like the recipe Bejay shows on the harvest forum, but we didn't even process it. I guess they have decided now that it isn't safe to keep if you don't BWB it even though it has been sitting out for 3-4 weeks by the time you BWB, and ours sealed itself. It is by far the simplest way to make sauerkraut even if you have to use BWB.

Thanks to both of you for your help. Since it is a freezer recipe instead of canning, I think I can take some liberties with the recipe.

I prefer no or little sugar in my freezer slaw. I just learned about freezer slaw a year or two ago an started with the sugary stuff. Then I figured, duh, just try it with a recipe I like and so I did. I do the salt & drain thing first then make up a spicy, sour Asian dressing. Yum! And, yes, it's crisp for me.

It is crispy or crunchy, although not the same as cole slaw that's never been frozen.

I think the point of salting the cabbage is so the salt can pull out some of the moisture to help it stay crispy.

I like to freeze it in small freezer containers so that I can take out and thaw enough for 1 or 2 meals. You can thaw it overnight in the freezer or for about an hour at room temperature. If I plan ahead, I can take it out of the freezer in the morning and put it into the refrigerator to thaw (can also do that the night before). We work outside all day, come inside and make BLTs with just-picked tomatoes and freezer slaw, and maybe a side dish of jalapeno poppers or okra or something else that we just harvested. I tend to plan our meals in the summer based on what's come into the kitchen from the garden. Tim can walk into the kitchen and look at the bowls of produce I've just brough in from the garden and have a good idea of "what's for dinner".

The great thing about freezer slaw is that it is already made and just sitting there waiting, and it turns a simple sandwich into a meal.

I ferment sauerkraut in a very large glass 3 or 4-gallon glass jar and then can it in canning jars.

Even with sauerkraut and freezer slaw, we probably still havested more cabbage than we'll ever be able to eat. Tim likes cooked cabbage a lot more than I do. I like it in cole slaw and salads and I'll eat a little sauerkraut or cooked cabbage but I'm not crazy about either of those last two. Luckily fresh cabbage will stay good for a long time in the extra freezer in the garage. By the time we eat all the spring harvest, I'll be counting the days to the fall harvest.

I'm not a big fan of sauerkraut either but since I found out it's an important source of Vit K-2, I've been making a sauerkraut salad with it and munching some every day to help bone remineralization.

All the recipes I've seen online call for some sugar, and that does make it taste good, but I cut it down to a fraction to make it palatable and temper the sourness of it. I also don't add the oil most recipes call for. Too much Omega 6 or over processed oil.

The sauerkraut has to be eaten in the raw fermented stage to be effective. I suppose one could make a sauerkraut salad without the sugar or Splenda. I've just never tried it.

Barbara

Here is a link that might be useful: Vitamin K-2 The Missing Nutrient

I'm with Tim. Who wants slaw or sauerkraut when you can have braised cabbage? Yum!

Marcy

Marcy, I guess I'll cook Tim some cabbage tomorrow or Tuesday since those are his days off this week(he's a police officer and works crazy hours and crazy days off). I guess cooked cabbage is an acquired taste I just can't seem to acquire. He grew up eating it, so he loves it. I didn't grow up eating cooked cabbage, so I don't like it. I don't even like the smell of cooked cabbage!

Dawn