A terrific, highly versatile Everyday Cabbage Salad. Think of it like Coleslaw – minus the mayo dressing. Pairs brilliantly with light dishes like fish and seafood, as well as as rich hearty meals like roasts and stews. Can’t-Stop-Eating-It delicious!
A great Cabbage Salad for everything!
Keeping this post short and sweet because it’s an extra recipe I’m publishing today alongside the Brown Sugar Garlic Butter Pork Roast!
The dressing is a bit tangy (not sharp) with a touch of sweet, and it’s neutral enough to serve alongside almost any main, any Cuisine. I’d serve it as a side for almost any Western dish, it’s certainly at home with European dishes (Eastern and Western), South American and even Indian and Asian.
It’s an excellent stand by salad because cabbage holds up so well once chopped, so you can keep bags of the shredded cabbage in the fridge alongside a jar of the dressing, then toss it together when you need it.
Give it a bit of time to wilt, just like Coleslaw – the cabbage will sag and the salad becomes nice and juicy. Nobody wants to try to shove stiff bits of cabbage sticking out everywhere into their mouth!!
What I put in Cabbage Salad
I make this with just green cabbage (any type) or when I want to add a splash of colour, I mix it up with purple cabbage and carrot, as pictured. A touch of green onion wouldn’t go astray either, but there’s enough tang in the dressing such that it’s not required.
What this goes with
I call this my Everyday Cabbage Salad because it’s just that. Serve it with everything from Schnitzel to Pan Fried Fish, Meatloaf to Baked Chicken Breasts. Try it with these fabulous Sun Dried Tomato Stuffed Chicken breasts, quick crispy Garlic Chicken Thighs or these sticky Country Baked Pork Chops.
With a few little tweaks I’ve suggested in the recipe notes, it can be easily transformed into an Asian Salad to have as a side with any Asian food, including Chinese, Thai and Vietnamese. 🙂
Enjoy! – Nagi x
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Everyday Cabbage Salad
Ingredients
Salad:
- 5 cups shredded green cabbage
- 2 cups shredded red cabbage (or more green)
- 1 cup shredded carrot (or more cabbage)
Dressing:
- 1/4 cup cidar vinegar
- 2 tbsp oil (vegetable or canola, or light olive oil)
- 1 1/2 - 2 tbsp white sugar (adjust to taste)
- 1 tsp dijon mustard
- 1/2 tsp salt
Instructions
- Shake Dressing ingredients in a jar. Start with 1 1/2 tbsp sugar and adjust to taste.
- Place Salad ingredients in a large bowl. Pour over Dressing, toss. Set aside 20 minutes - mound will reduce by almost half and become juicy! Serve.
Recipe Notes:
- Once dressed, the cabbage wilts and it becomes like Coleslaw which I love, so I have this for 2 to 3 days after dressing the Coleslaw.
- Storage / make ahead - I like to keep the chopped cabbage and dressing in the fridge, ready to use as required. It lasts up to a week, depending on how fresh the cabbage is!
- This recipe is an extra recipe I'm sharing as a side to this slow roasted Brown Sugar Garlic Butter Pork.
- Garlic is always a welcome addition to the dressing, but if you do add it, the dressing is only good for 3 days (on salad or in jar).
- Asian - Use rice vinegar instead of cider vinegar, add 2 tsp of soy sauce instead of the salt, and 2 tsp sesame oil. 1 tsp grated ginger and 1 minced garlic clove would be a bonus. Serve alongside Asian mains.
- Indian Style - use 3 tbsp of oil, heat in small pan over medium heat and sauté 1 finely chopped garlic. When it is starting to turn golden, add 1 tsp of cumin seeds. Allow to cool then use in Dressing. Serve alongside Indian main dishes.
- Middle Eastern - add a handful of torn mint leaves or coriander/cilantro leaves or a mix of both. Serve alongside Middle Eastern main dishes.
- Mexican - use lime in place of the vinegar and extra virgin oil as the oil, and add 1 garlic clove, minced. A handful of coriander/cilantro leaves would be ideal too. Serve alongside Mexican mains.
- Mediterranean - Use red wine vinegar instead of cider vinegar, add 1 garlic clove minced, and 2 tsp of dried oregano. Serve alongside Mediterranean mains.
Nutrition Information:
LIFE OF DOZER
When Dozer came dress shopping…. I live in a very dog friendly area!
I just LOVE the pictures of Dozer! He is just adorable!!
He IS adorable…when he’s not being a food pest! N x
Dee-licous! I used 1 tsp. honey in place of sugar and only 2 tsp. olive oil. Love this and can’t wait to try some of the variations!
This very well be the best cabbage salad/slaw that I have ever tasted. I need help understanding something. You said it comes to a total of 18 ounces of cabbage. I am not counting the cup of carrots but in the nutrition it says 316 grams or 11 ounces per serving. 11 ounces is a lot for a serving or is that amount that is totally made? Counting not limiting my caloric intake.
Hi Nagi! Do you think I’d be able to get by with just 1 tbsp of oil instead of 2?
Hi Nagi, I am curious to try this but I am wondering what exactly is Green Cabbage? I can’t find what is strictly called Green Cabbage except Baby Green Cabbage, is that what I am looking for or is it Savoy Cabbage or Sweetheart Cabbage?
Hi Chris, just a regular green cabbage, if you can’t find it though, you can use savoy in its place 🙂 N x
This is my go to salad, I make it at the beginning of the week and use it for the rest of the week. My daughter loves it as well – if she doesn’t like the veggies in dinner she have this on the side instead.
Thanks for such a great recipe! It is so delicious and versatile!
I could go on and on about how great this salad is. It goes with everything (I’ve used it on tacos before) and stores well. Oh yeah, its also delicious!
This is an amazingly delicious and easy salad to make. Thank you Nagi 🙂
Great recipe! Even my fussy kids enjoyed it! I used grainy mustard instead of dijon. It was for a lebanese meal, so I added fresh mint and parsley to the grown-up salad. Will make again!
I make this salad on Sundays and it last me 5 days to add to ALL my meals.
Brilliant recipe, thanks Nagi
Loved this recipe for a simple but very tasty cabbage salad.
And I really appreciate notes and variations that you’ve included. Most helpful. Thank you.
Lovely and fresh delicious
so, how many ozs of cabbage are we using here?
Hi Judy, about 13oz of green cabbage and 5oz of red cabbage. N x
Hi Nagi, we’ve just finished dinner and the salad was a hit. The dressing is sooo good that it will become my regular salad dressing. Yummy. Thank you for another great recipe.
I ran out of ACV, only had about an 8th of a cup. So, I used 1/8 of a cup of rice vinegar. I used 1 ts of sugar because I know my FAM is not partial to sweet salad dressings. Also, rice vinegar adds a little sweetness too. I used canola oil,
Since this is the first time I’ve tried this recipe. I had only what was in my fridge. I only had about 4 cups of white cabbage, so my add on’s were. 1 carrot grated and 1/4 onion grated and 1/3 large green pepper sliced very thinly to match the shredded cabbage.
I prepared everything about 4 or so hours before it was served with broiled pork shoulder chops marinated in BBQ sauce.
We really enjoyed this salad. But if I was using the recipe amounts of cabbage. I would double the dressing. Especially if you intend to use after a few hours as I did.