I ate my teriyaki meatball bowls all week as meal prep and absolutely loved them, but I desperately need another vegetable side to balance things out. So, I whipped up a quick crunchy cabbage salad and coated it in my yummy sesame ginger dressing. It was just perfect. The crunchiness of the the cabbage, carrots, and peanuts was such a perfect contrast to the meatballs and rice.
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Meal Prep It!
This salad holds up beautifully in the refrigerator, so it’s a great salad to use for meal prep! Just store the sesame ginger dressing separately from the vegetable salad mix, and add it just before serving. The salad mix (minus dressing) should stay good in the fridge for about 4-5 days.
How to Serve Crunchy Cabbage Salad
This salad makes a great side dish, but you can also turn it into a main dish by topping it with some Easy Teriyaki Chicken, Honey Sriracha Tofu, Easy Orange Chicken, or Sesame Tempeh. You can also add some cold noodles to this salad for extra oomph (this is the same base as my Cold Peanut Noodle Salad).
What if I Don’t Like Cilantro?
You either love or you hate cilantro. It’s all good. If you’re not a cilantro lover, just leave it out of this salad. No need to replace it with anything. :)
See the full post for the Sesame Ginger Dressing for more information on the ingredients and step by step instructions.
Crunchy Cabbage Salad
Servings 6 1 cup eachIngredients
Salad
- 4 cups shredded purple cabbage ($0.97)
- 2 carrots ($0.15)
- 4 green onions ($0.22)
- 1/2 bunch fresh cilantro ($0.40)
- ½ cup peanuts ($0.25)
Sesame Ginger Dressing
- ¼ cup neutral salad oil* ($0.16)
- 2 Tbsp rice vinegar ($0.27)
- 1 Tbsp soy sauce ($0.06)
- 1.5 Tbsp honey ($0.18)
- 1/2 Tbsp tahini ($0.10)
- 1/4 tsp toasted sesame oil ($0.02)
- 1 clove garlic, minced ($0.08)
- 1/2 Tbsp grated fresh ginger ($0.15)
Instructions
- Shred the cabbage as finely as possible. Grate the carrots and slice the green onion. Pull the cilantro leaves from the stems
- Add the shredded cabbage, carrots, green onion, cilantro, and peanuts to a large bowl. Toss to combine.
- To make the dressing, add the salad oil, rice vinegar, soy sauce, honey, tahini, toasted sesame oil, garlic, and ginger to a blender. Blend until the dressing is smooth and creamy.
- When you're ready to eat, drizzle the dressing over the salad and toss until coated. Serve immediately
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Equipment
- White Cutting Boards
- Chef’s Knife
- Grater
- Small Blender
Notes
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!How to Make Crunchy Cabbage Salad – Step by Step Photos
First, shred your purple cabbage. You’ll want about 4 cups once shredded, which for me was half of this small head of cabbage. To shred the cabbage, first cut it into quarters, then cut the core off the quarter. Finally, cut across the quarter to shred the cabbage as finely as possible.
Also shred two carrots (I use a cheese grater) and slice 4 green onions.
Pull the leaves from about ½ bunch of cilantro (about 1 cup cilantro leaves). Add the shredded cabbage, carrot, sliced green onion, cilantro leaves, and ½ cup peanuts to a large bowl.
Next, make the Sesame Ginger Dressing. Add ¼ cup neutral salad oil (anything light-flavored oil like canola, peanut, grape seed, etc.), 2 Tbsp rice vinegar, 1 Tbsp soy sauce, 1.5 Tbsp honey, ½ Tbsp tahini, ¼ tsp toasted sesame oil, 1 clove garlic (minced), and ½ Tbsp grated fresh ginger to a blender. Blend until the dressing is smooth and creamy.
Pour the sesame ginger dressing over the salad and enjoy!
Really enjoyed your crunchy cabbage salad. Great blend of flavors. Hit the spot on a hot, summer day.
I used napa cabbage as there wasn’t any purple available. I would definitely increase the sesame seed oil next time, and I quite liked it once I added in some sriracha.
Should the peanuts be raw, roasted, Planters dry roasted with salt or without?
Any of the above. :) I personally prefer roasted and unsalted, but it’s just going to be your personal preference.
Delicious
Hi thank you for this recipe, it’s a staple in our house… it’s so flavorful and it keeps really well in the fridge! Do you have any slow cooker pulled chicken recipes that would pair really well with this salad to make it a complete meal? Any sort of Thai inspired slow cooker chicken recipe you’d recommend? Thanks again and please keep posting!!
Hmm, I don’t have a recipe like that but you might like Jessica Gavin’s Honey Hoisin Garlic Chicken. It’s on my website, but it’s from her cookbook.
I love this recipe – I eat it so often now! Last night, I was making the dressing and absentmindedly added two tablespoons of soy sauce. Instead of throwing it out and starting again, I doubled everything else, so I have a ton of dressing. Now, I do still have half a cabbage so I’d be more than happy to just make it again, but I was wondering if the dressing would freeze – do you think it would survive? Thanks!
Hmm, honestly I’ve never tried to freeze a dressing like this! I think the only bad thing that could happen would be for the emulsion to separate, but I’m sure if you just whisk it up again it would be fine. :)
This salad was soooooo delicious! The dressing is good enough to drink. I was going to add some lime juice to it but I’m so glad I didn’t because it was absolutely perfect as written. I think the salad would be good with some bell pepper or mandarin oranges, and I’ll try it with sliced almonds instead of peanuts–but not because it wasn’t perfect; just for some variations.
This is my new go-to Asian dressing.
I absolutely love this salad. I added a bit more ginger but kept everything else the same. I was skeptical because I’m not a huge cabbage fan, but it was delicious. Thank you for the great recipe!
I made this last night and thought it was really good. I used honey roasted peanuts which made it a little sweet so I added a little salt to the dressing to balance it out since I used a low sodium soy sauce. Next time I would use a salty peanut. I thought this was great and am surprised someone threw it in the trash. I thought it was a nice asian side that I served with Korean Tacos. Thanks for the recipe Beth!
This was so good and will also make it into my regular rotation. I didn’t have fresh ginger or garlic so used a pinch of dried each, no cilantro. I added tri-color quinoa and grilled tofu and it was a delicious hearty meal.
I made this and it didn’t really work for me, I felt like the peanut butter and the lime really didn’t mesh, like I could taste each ingredient separately. I love budget bytes but won’t be trying this one again!
There isn’t any peanut butter or lime in this recipe
Loved this salad and dressing – it’s going into our regular rotation! I used bagged slaw mix for laziness, even though the purple cabbage is prettier. And I used cashews instead of peanuts. Served with chicken thighs marinated in Korean BBQ sauce.
HUGE hit and now permanent addititon to my rotation. I served this with the Ginger Soy Glazed Chicken thighs. We also served it with the leftover chicken, cold, the next day and I think they actually liked that better!
Tossed in a cup of dried szechuan noodle. All I had was chopped/broken cashews and no cilantro. Served this at our Fire Hall with your ginger dressing. People went back for seconds and more until it was all gone and many wanted the recipe.
After reading the reviews – I made this for Father’s Day dinner … the dish is very colorful – which is another reason I made it … but was I ever disappointed in the taste … the ginger was way too strong … even tho I’m not in the habit of throwing food away – this never made it to the table …