The Alpine coffee shop and cafe, situated in Regent Street in the centre of Douglas, has been serving nutritious soups, chunky sandwiches, big brunches and tasty cakes in a lively and friendly environment for well over 11 years now.

The popular eatery is run by Melanie and Simon Ross whose other venture is Ross Bakery in Ballasalla, a business they set up to supply the Alpine but now makes bread for businesses and consumers all across the island.

Both Simon and Melanie love to make all the food you can find on the menu, but the undoubted star of the show is their salad counter.

An incredible amount of effort and creativity goes into making the Alpine salad counter every day with new ideas, techniques and ingredients being introduced all the time.

When it comes to salads, there must be hundreds of combinations in the collective minds of the Alpine team so it is a really hard job for them to single out only one.

This cabbage and apple slaw is a classic though.

And we think it is the perfect side to anything you might want to barbecue in a socially-distanced style this summer.

It’s also really versatile and once you’ve mastered making the base recipe you really can go wild with additional ingredients.

If you’re missing your Alpine salads during the current situation, they are still made fresh each day and are available to order online for collection, along with a range of favourite Alpine foods, such as their homemade hummus, granola and savoury tarts from www.rossbakery.co

Cabbage and Apple Slaw�

Ingredients

A small cabbage. You can choose either a white or red cabbage, although we prefer to use red.

A fresh apple

One red onion

Garlic

A fresh chilli

Some fresh herbs, such as mint, parsley, chive or coriander.

Salt, pepper, white wine vinegar and good extra virgin olive oil

Method:

The first thing to do is to remove any tough outer leaves from your chosen cabbage.

Then chop it in half and then slice it as thinly as you can.

Now do the same to the red onion.

At this point if you give the onions and cabbage a little sprinkle of salt it will start to soften them.

Take the two cloves of garlic and finely slice.

Then take your fresh chilli and finely chop, before mixing with the sliced garlic and adding to your cabbage mixture.

Then take you apple and core it before slicing thinly.

Finish preparing the salad by roughly tearing your chosen herbs and adding to the fresh ingredients.

You prepare the dressing for your salad by combining one part white wine vinegar to three parts extra virgin olive oil in a jug or bowl, giving them a good shake to mix it all together.

Add a good glug of this to your salad with a sprinkle of salt and pepper.

Mix it all together by hand then season to taste.

That’s the basic recipe but the beauty of the slaw is that you can now make it your own by mixing up the ingredients.

For example, we sometimes add toasted mixed seeds or some fresh, vibrant pomegranate seeds.

Cumin seeds or extra dried chilli flakes are also good to add to the slaw.

You can also add raisins, slivers of raw carrot, foraged berries, radishes or daikon, which is a different type of radish but one that packs a lighter peppery punch.

If you imagine your salad as a combination of sweet, sour and heat elements that you can change with the seasons or with whatever you have in your fridge, that’s where the fun starts.

Once mixed, your dressed salad is best left for about half an hour for the cabbage to start to soften and break down before eating.

Roast Pepper, courgette and red rice.

We love to use this grain at the shop. It’s got a nice bite and works super well with any soft vegetables.

Ingredients

One courgette

One pepper of any colour

One red onion

A garlic glove

A handful of red rice per person

Fresh parsley

Extra virgin olive oil, white wine vinegar, salt and pepper.

Method

Cut your pepper and courgette into chunks and put into a baking tray with a pinch of salt and olive oil.

Cook in the oven at 180° for 20 minutes.

Your vegetables should be soft but still hold themselves.

Cook your red rice following the packet recipe, as they all tend to differ.

Rinse well to cool down and get rid of the glutenous part of it.

Add to a bowl with the vegetables and chop the garlic clove and your red onion finely into it before adding any fresh herb you have roughly into it (we use parsley).

Dress and add salt and pepper to your taste.