Crunchy Cabbage Salad

$3.01 recipe / $0.51 serving

Budget Bytes » Recipes » Salad Recipes » Crunchy Cabbage Salad

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.

Originally posted 2-6-2012, updated 7-23-2020.

Crunchy Cabbage Salad in a white serving dish with two forks, drizzled with sesame ginger dressing

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 Sticky Ginger Soy Glazed 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 coated in dressing, dished out to two bowls.

Crunchy Cabbage Salad

This crunchy cabbage salad holds up great in the refrigerator, so you can have a fresh crunchy vegetable side all week long!

Prep Time: 20 mins

Total Time: 20 mins

Servings: 6 1 cup each

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)

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

*Any neutral-flavored salad oil, like peanut, canola, safflower, grapeseed, or sesame (untoasted) will work fine for this dressing.

See how we calculate recipe costs here.

Serving: 1serving ・ Calories: 213.72kcal ・ Carbohydrates: 13.88g ・ Protein: 5.08g ・ Fat: 16.78g ・ Sodium: 179.27mg ・ Fiber: 4.58g

Nutritional values are estimates only. See our full nutrition disclosure here.

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How to Make Crunchy Cabbage Salad – Step by Step Photos

Purple cabbage cut into quarters and shredded

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.

shredded carrot and sliced green onion

Also shred two carrots (I use a cheese grater) and slice 4 green onions.

Salad ingredients in the bowl

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.

Sesame ginger dressing ingredients in a blender

Next, make the Sesame Ginger Dressing. Add ¼ cup neutral salad oil (anything light-flavored oil like canola, peanut, grapeseed, 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.

Sesame ginger dressing being poured over the crunchy cabbage salad