Not just another boring cabbage salad!!! Inspired by a salad made famous by Karen Martini, an Australian restauranteur and chef, this is made with cabbage, peas and mint tossed with parmesan, lemon and olive oil. A bit unique yet so familiar, and topped with a simple, tasty grilled chicken to make this a complete meal. Skip the chicken and peas and you have yourself a quick every-day cabbage salad!
It’s probably totally uncool to admit this, but I always have cabbage in the fridge. This only started once I “grew up” and realised a) how versatile cabbage is b) how quick it is to shred (e.g. compared to carrot) and c) how long it lasts in the fridge (weeks and weeks and weeks!). Then it became a part of my regular shop.
I bet I could blast off 10 quick uses for cabbage without barely taking a breath. Let’s try:
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Stir Fries (use my Chinese Stir Fry Sauce to make a Cabbage Stir Fry, add garlic and/or ginger, or add chicken and other veggies to make a complete stir fry! And don’t forget CHOW MEIN!);
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Coleslaw, Asian shredded salads (e.g. Chinese Chicken Salad)
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Soups! Shredded or chopped, Western and Asian ones (terrific to add greens into Chinese Noodle Soup);
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Sautéed cabbage with garlic and olive oil. Or add parmesan (so good, I make this often, super quick side);
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Adding veggies and bulk to omelettes (I do this often too);
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Into vegetarian casseroles and lasagnes – again, fantastic for adding healthy bulk because it melds well with other veggies and into sauces;
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Pickled (here’s a quick one used as a side in my Fish Tacos);
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Adding hidden veggies into things like Bolognese, Homemade Hamburger Helper and similar;
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Adding veggies into one pot rice dishes, like this every popular Baked Chicken and Rice.
OK, I did take a breath writing all that out, but you know what I mean. They just rolled right off my tongue. I mean, my keyboard. 😉
So for all those for whom cabbage is also a pantry staple – and if parmesan is also a staple – then there is every possibility you have everything you need to make this Lemon Parmesan Cabbage Salad. With chicken – if chicken is also a freezer staple!
I know the combination of peas and cabbage may sound a bit unique, but it is truly a fantastic combination. Think – crunchy fresh cabbage dressed with a lemon dressing with oomph from parmesan, combined with sweet pops of peas and a touch of freshness from mint.
Mint + peas are best mates, lemon and parmesan are friends with everyone.
So even if you have not tried the combination of cabbage, peas, mint, lemon and parmesan before, can you imagine that it is just so right??
This is not a salad combination I came up with myself. I think it was first made popular by Karen Martini, a popular Australian chef and restauranteur. The restaurant version uses loads more oil, and she has chilli in hers. And it’s absolutely terrific.
This is my home version that I’ve adapted to my taste (using much less oil!), adding a simple lemon marinated grilled chicken to make it a complete meal. Though actually, I make just the cabbage salad without the chicken more often because I always have the ingredients on hand.
Oh – and the other benefit is that the dressing isn’t made in a separate jar, it’s just drizzled right on the salad then tossed. Nice for lazy salads.
Oh – and another little tip. Yes, this is better made with freshly grated parmesan because it kind of dissolves into the salad. But it is still super tasty made with store bought grated parmesan, it just won’t dissolve fully. 🙂
Tell me – is it really uncool that I have cabbage in my fridge at all times?? – Nagi xx
PS Not that I mind being a dag. I’ll still be popping cabbage into my trolley every week!!!
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Lemon Parmesan Cabbage Salad with Grilled Chicken
Ingredients
Grilled Chicken:
- 2 small chicken breasts (150g/5oz each), 2 cm / 4/5" thick (or 1 large, cut in half horizontally)
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 garlic clove , minced
- Black pepper
- 2 tsp olive oil
Cabbage Salad:
- 5 heaped cups shredded green cabbage
- 1/2 red onion , finely sliced
- 1 cup peas (fresh is always best, but I usually use frozen)
- 1 cup fresh mint leaves (lightly packed)
- 100 g / 3.5 oz freshly grated parmesan (about 1 heaped cup) (Note 2)
- 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1/4 cup / 60 ml extra virgin olive oil (good quality counts here!)
- Black pepper
Instructions
- If the chicken is much thicker than 2cm / 4/5", pound lightly or cut in half horizontally.
- Place the Grilled Chicken ingredients in a ziplock bag and set aside for 30 minutes to overnight.
- Use the oil to brush the grill, or heat oil in a skillet over medium high heat. Cook the chicken for 4 minutes on each side, then remove onto a plate. Cover loosely with foil, rest for 5 minutes, then slice thinly.
- Cook the peas in boiling water (or steam), drain then rinse under cold tap water to cool down.
- Place cabbage, peas, mint and onion in a bowl. Add parmesan, lemon juice, olive oil, and pepper.
- Toss well. Adjust salt to taste, add more parmesan if desired.
- Transfer to serving plates, top with chicken. Garnish with more parmesan and black pepper, then serve.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT
Lemon Parmesan Cabbage Salad with Grilled Chicken recipe video! Note: The recipe is scaled down a bit in the video because I couldn’t locate my usual large salad bowl. 🙂
LIFE OF DOZER
I’m guessing he is lusting after the chicken. Not the cabbage? Just a wild guess.
This recipe is so good!!! The slaw is easy to make and tastes amazing. Everyone loves this!
Maybe a silly question. You say you used green cabbage in this recipe. but it looks different than the green cabbage we use in the US. Is it savory cabbage? Our green cabbage is waxy looking and squeaky. Lol.
Hi again! I found a different, similar recipe, so I will keep the dressing separate from the salad and it should be good to eat over a couple of days. Yummmmmmm! 🥳
Dear Nagi – this looks absolutely fabulous! Question – is it something that needs to be served right away, or do the leftovers keep pretty well? I think it could go either way due to the acid and salt…just not sure. AND WELCOME BACK – ahhh those soy noodles….With love from Minnesota USA!
This is delicious. I made extra dressing and sweetened it up a little bit with sugar. Also used an entire small package of peas. I like cherry tomatoes so I added a few to my own plate.
Sounds perfect Sharon! N x
Hi Nagi – this recipe looks amazing. My husband and I love peas in salads however our son is a total “pea-hater” grrrr. So annoying. What finely chopped snow peas be an ok substitute or do you not get the same sweetness??? Would love your thoughts. I plan on making this, amongst many of your other recipes, this week.
It’s so funny, I literally make your recipes for 80% of our meals and if it’s something new the family always ask “is this a Nagi”. Once I say yes it gets the nod of approval even before they taste hahaha
Hi Lisa, you could sub with anything! Snow peas, edamame beans, green beans – ay of these would be amazing! N x
This was surprisingly delicious. Thank you. Will def be s go to salad from now on!!! ❤️❤️💋
I’m so happy you loved it Nicky, it’s one of my go to’s as I always have cabbage lying around!
Nagi. I usually say YUm or wow but this salad was RIDICULOUSLY DELICIOUS. anyone who leaves the freshly grated Parmesan Reggiano isn’t getting that naturally salty/savoury taste mixed with the lemon/crisp cabbage ….MINT!! This was the best salad I’ve had in a long time. Oh and that chicken marinated in soy sauce,garlic and lemon. Omg. Ohh and the peas to sweeten it up and yes to good quality olive oil. At the end of making this I tossed some pistaccios in….
Ps…hi Dozer. 🙂
Dozer just stuck his face in the screen to say HI back. 😉 Glad you enjoyed this Steven, that’s HIGH PRAISE! N x
Thank you Nagi!
I just made your “baked chicken and rice” and add this salad as a sidedish, without the grilled chicken of course.
It was an incredible combination. So easy to prepare and so tasty!!!
NAGI, YOU ARE MY COOKING GURU!
You flatter me Anne! 🙂 I just write some words down, it’s YOU who did the cooking! You’re the Cooking Goddess! 🙂 N xx
Ok – so I totally messed with your recipe. I was distracted between school pick up, netball practice, 5 kids (not all mine) and a drop in (with a bottle of red wine) to discuss the disastrous swimming club committee . By the time I got to cooking dinner, I decided to fry bacon in a whole lot of butter, saute the cabbage in the buttery bacony delicious pan, microwave the peas and then toss them all together with the lemon juice and a mix of finely grated parmesan and flaked parmesan (by hand with a peeler) – Result was a moorish side to Katsu Curry!!!! All I needed was to glance at your email today while thinking about dinner and the result……Lemon Bacon and Parmesan Cabbage. Thankyou for the inspiration!
I LOVE HEARING THAT!!!!! Sorry to hear about the disastrous meeting 🙂 Hope you recovered! N x
I asked our new au pair to make dinner for the next 3 nights and directed her to your website for ideas. She picked this salad and chicken dish for her first meal. I was so excited, because I loved this when I cooked it as a side last month (see above comment) but it is even better as a salad with the grilled chicken. The kids were less than impressed, but they did all eat some – better than some meals. This will definitely be on the menu in future as per your original and the kids will learn to love it too.
Glad you enjoyed it even if the kids weren’t that impressed! 😂 N xx
Yep, cabbage is a pantry staple of mine too. Love the stuff and its versatility. And if Dozer was anything like my two dogs, the cabbage would be just as important as that chicken! 😀
Ha! So you’re a fellow cabbage dag like me – GOOD! 😉 N xx
Hi
Just had this tonight and it is absolutely delicious. Thank you for another super recipe.
Dozer is waiting so patiently for a taste of the yummy looking chicken. Either that or you were holding a big T-Bone steak in your other hand to get his attention while taking the picture. Either way, a great shot.
Cabbage is always in our chiller. Right now it’s about to used in this great looking salad.
We’re grilling chicken this evening, so this fits perfect.
Thanks for the post.
Hi nagi, do you usually use Chinese cabbage in this recipe?
Hi Jan! I usually use normal green cabbage because it keeps longer so it’s what I have on hand. Also, Chinese cabbage has a thick white stem in the middle so after the outer layers, you end up with more white stem than the green leaves, which creates a juicier texture than using normal cabbage 🙂 N x
Hi Nagi, I thought I just posted a comment to this recipe but I don’t see it anywhere.
I think I didn’t hit the post comment button.
This is another meal that is perfect for a week day. Easy and fast. It would also make a great sandwich (inside a pita bread with yogurt sauce or in a Taco shell).
It appeared, don’t worry! 🙂 Sometimes I have to manually approve messages. N xx
Thanks Nagi ! 🙂
Hello Nagi! I love your recipes, quick, easy and mostly healthy! But I do love those cakes too hehe
The chicken makes this a main dish. Perfect for a weekday meal !
I love the mint!
This salad would be perfect too as a sandwich in a pita bread, with yogurt sauce and a little bit of Harissa!
Oooh YES! Love the idea of yoghurt sauce and pita bread 🙂
Hi Nagi, love receiving your recipes each week and try to make as many as I can. Each has been a keeper! Dozer is also a star in my house … my husband now asks “what’s Dozer up to this time?” 😊 Can you explain what you mean by crisping cabbage? Do you keep it in the crisper ?
Hi Liz! Actually, I don’t usually crisp cabbage, I find it stays crisp as it is – but yes I put it in the vegetable crisper drawer. However, what I have done is shredded it, rinsed then popped it either in a salad spinner (lid on) or even in ziplock bags and it stays nice and crisp for days. DAYS!!!
I think Dozer is hoping that table tilts just a tiny bit and he’ll be there — to the rescue!!! Now, I don’t have enough cabbage in the fridge. I don’t know why, we really like cabbage. My mamma always had cabbage at home — she usually fried it rather than eating it raw – that’s an Italian thing. The older Italians love their veggies COOKED! This recipe really sounds delicious. Let me put it this way, I’ve yet to make one of your recipes and NOT have it be absolutely wonderful. Have a great day! 🤗
In his dreams, plates of food JUMP from the table onto the floor…..
Dozer is keeping an Eye on YOU. Love cabbage in salads Or in Cooking. Tend to use Savoy cabbage, am having at in Fridge. Thanks for your Replayed . Nettle, Sorrel is Vegies we have grown up with and dendilon. Sorrel was used insted lemon, Sauce for chicken, fish. Nettle Quish still can be bought in coffee shops in Germany. In Melb more and more restaurants Are having Nettle on menu. True I realy wish YOU Were in Melb, we Would have blast!!
I’ve never cooked with nettle OR sorrel!! And yes we would get up to all sorts of no good if I lived in Melbourne……..
Well, the only time I do not have cabbage at home is when I have run out of it! That said, I love the look of this and, in quite a simple way, it is somewhat different to what I usually cook!! Not surprised the idea originated in Karen Martini’s kitchen: the funny thing is I did not immediately take to her at the very early part of the century . . . seemed ‘just another chef’ amongst the plethora of brilliant Australian ones. Bought her first book, began cooking from it and kept on going back. Like her as a judge on MKR: fair but firm 🙂 ! Thanks for this: will be tried soonest . . . {Dozer: the meaty bits are on the other side: don’t be such lazybones!!]
You and me both! Re: Karen Martini, funny you say that, me too! I actually wasn’t a huge fan until I tried one of her salad recipes, then another salad….she does GREAT salads. She even manages to make a wicked canned tuna salad – that takes talent! 😉