Spring roll salad (cabbage, carrot & egg ribbon salad with sesame sauce)
Lunar New Year, a little rule-bending and a cake for good luck.
Jews dip apples in honey to welcome a new year. And even though that’s probably the only Jewish tradition that I follow strictly (I’m terrible like that), I always found the reasoning behind it – willing the new year to be sweet – a bit simple. I really hoped there was more to it: more depth, more meaning, some historical significance with a great story attached, as we do so well.
But then I met Helen Goh, an old friend and collaborator, and I realised that the Chinese have a whole myriad of symbolic traditions of this kind: auspicious gestures that I can explain to my kids in a sentence or two.
At Helen’s Lunar New Year parties, everyone must wear something red (even just a sock) because it’s a happy colour and is considered lucky. Good fortune will also come from mandarin oranges and kumquats that are scattered everywhere. Helen makes a delicious steamed fish (like this one) and it must be served whole for the year to have a proper beginning and an end (a head and a tail). She serves her famous pineapple tarts not just because they taste so good, but because in Hokkien, the word ong lai—used in Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia—literally means ‘luck coming your way’.
Excuse me if I’m making light of things that actually go much deeper (I blame Helen if that’s the case. Sorry, Helen), but ignorance and culinary misconceptions seem to be a bit of a theme running through this post and I’m not sure I’m willing to let them go.
How so? Well, the cabbage salad I’ve been making this week – a tribute to the coming Lunar New Year – can actually trace its roots back to my childhood. I can see an eyebrow or two being raised, but it’s true, we did have Chinese restaurants in Jerusalem in the 70s and 80s and my favourite thing they served was the eggrolls. How Chinese were those, I’m not entirely sure – Vietnamese refugees ran the restaurants and often you’d find vermicelli noodles in them – but I did fall in love with them, and with most egg rolls (or spring rolls) I have had since.
So my cabbage, carrot and egg salad is a deconstructed version of a spring roll, which is another auspicious Lunar New Year dish. But in pulling it apart, I fear I may have lost some of its meaning. After all, it’s their likeness to gold bars that make spring rolls a symbol of wealth and prosperity for the year ahead. And let’s not forget the noodles—usually left uncut to represent longevity—none of which have made it into my version.
But maybe that’s okay. What’s a new year without a little reinvention?
A (steamed) cake for good luck
I wanted to hold out a little hope for some luck this year, so I’ll be making a prosperity cake—with butterscotch and whiskey sauce, no less. It’s loosely based on fa gao, the traditional Lunar New Year steamed sponge cake. In the south of China, these cakes are usually cupcake-sized and blossom beautifully as they steam. The rise of the cake is said to symbolise how prosperous the year ahead will be (apparently, the mysterious gods of bun fortune have it all figured out...).
In my version, there’s usually no dramatic blossom (maybe my luck’s just not in), but the cakes still rise generously, turning out light and fluffy. We tested the recipe with a few different flours—some gave a bit more lift, but plain flour did the job beautifully.
They’re served alongside a butterscotch sauce that uses all the same ingredients in the cake. This Lunar New Year dessert is delicious, warm, at room temperature, or even reheated in a microwave or steamer the next day. And if you don’t have darioles or pudding moulds, don’t worry—small mugs of a similar size will do just fine (or some small, Chinese tea cups, if you have any).
Just as nearly every British and American household has a microwave (or an air fryer, these days), nearly every home kitchen in China—and much of Asia—has a steamer. Ovens are a rarity, so steaming is their equivalent of baking, and home setups can range from bamboo baskets to colanders perched over a wok (or any number of ingenious solutions). But I know not all of us have a steamer lying around, which is why I’ve adapted the method so all you need is a hob and a pan of boiling water.
This cake is a fusion of several ideas, but at the end of the day, it’s just a really simple and extremely delicious steamed sponge. A hybrid between a fa gao and an old-school British treacle pud…I can never quite be trusted to stick to tradition.
Back to the main event, the spring roll salad.
It’s not necessarily for your Lunar New Year celebration, per se. While it would undoubtedly be one of the most popular contributions to a party, it’s also been a steady fixture in most of my weeknight dinners lately—just a side of rice, and that’s dinner sorted.
Our Test Kitchen is just around the corner from London’s Xian Impression. It’s one of my favourite spots in the city—steamed-up windows, long queues, quick service, and food that’s always worth the wait. Over the years, a couple of our recipes have been inspired by this place (like Ixta’s Biang Biang noodles). This one takes its cue from their smashed cucumbers—drenched in a sweet-salty-sour-fatty sauce that makes them the most moreish thing on the menu.
Like those cucumbers, my eggroll salad might seem like a side, but with a bit of rice (and maybe some shredded chicken or tofu?), it becomes a meal in itself—crunchy, vibrant, and satisfying.
A few practicalities: if you’re making it ahead, keep the marinated carrot mixture separate from the cabbage and toss everything together just before serving. We recommend sticking to Chinese cabbage—it’s frilly, leafy, and still has enough crunch to hold its own against that punchy dressing. Cut it into big chunks to really make the most of its texture. If you can’t find any, sweetheart cabbage is your next best bet—far better than regular, which doesn’t quite have the same bite.
If you’re looking for something more traditional, Fuchsia Dunlop is my go-to authority on Chinese cooking—Invitation to a Banquet in particular. She brings a human dimension to what is otherwise a serious and intrepid work of culinary history. Or, for recipes, Hsiao-Ching Chou’s a brilliant choice too.
And remember: China is a country, but it’s the size of a continent, and it boasts a culinary diversity that exceeds that of many actual continents. There isn’t one size fits all.
…Hence my very untraditional Lunar New Year.
Cabbage, carrot & egg ribbon salad with sesame sauce
Serves 4-6 as a side | Prep 20 mins | Cook 20 mins
2 carrots, peeled and julienned; to julienne, peel into ribbons, then cut the ribbons into thin strips, or use a julienne peeler if you’ve got one (200g)