This rainbow red cabbage slaw is super colorful, and it tastes just like it looks, with lots of citrusy flavor. The dressing has a generous amount of orange zest, a bit of lemon zest and juice, and a few other little accents. And you can make it with just about anything you’ve got on hand, as long as you have a head of red cabbage.
Read on for a few tips for success, or jump to the recipe + video to hit the ground running.
A few tips for rainbow slaw success:
(and this goes for pretty much any slaw, not just this red cabbage one!)
Salt your veggies ahead (if you have time):
- If you have time, salting your veggies first is always a good idea. The salt will draw some of their moisture out, ensuring that you don’t end up watering down the dressing. Instead, you just drain away that excess moisture, and dress your veggies from there.
- I recommend 10 to 15 minutes for the full effect, but even 5 minutes makes a big difference. I recommend prepping your ingredients, salting them, and then mixing up the dressing—that’ll buy you at least 2 minutes of salting time, even if you’re in a hurry.
- If you don’t have time, you can easily skip this step, no worries. I’ve made it both ways, and the slaw will be tasty either way. It’ll just be tastier if you don’t skip it.
Use a food processor (if you own one):
- This is such a time saver, especially if your knife skills aren’t the best.
- You might be most used to using your food processor with the blade attachment, but dig out the slicer and grater attachments whenever you have to prep a lot of ingredients for something like a slaw.
- Don’t bother rinsing out the food processor between ingredients—just swap out the attachment from slicer to grater and continue on.
Don’t let anything go to waste!
- Bell peppers:
- You can simply make this with a single bell pepper, but if you want the full rainbow slaw effect, you can use thirds or halves of an orange, red, and/or yellow bell pepper.
- Make sure you slice up the leftovers and store them in the fridge for dipping in hummus or adding an extra veggie side to lunches.
- The orange:
- This dressing includes lemon zest and juice, so you’ll probably end up using the whole thing. But it only calls for orange zest, because orange juice tends to water down a dressing.
- But don’t let that orange go to waste after zesting it! It’ll keep for another couple days in the fridge—just slice it up and eat it as a snack.
- Red onion and carrots:
- If you opt for red onion instead of green, you’ll probably have some left over.
- You probably also have some carrots left in that 16oz bag you bought. Slice a carrot up along with the leftover onion, throw them all a plastic bag, and freeze for next time you need to make anything that calls for mirepoix (if you have celery on hand, even better—add that too, and you won’t need to add it later).
Rainbow Red Cabbage Slaw
Ingredients
For the slaw:
- 1 small red cabbage [1lb / 455g]
- 1 bell pepper, optional*
- 1 carrot
- 1 small bunch green onions or 1/2 of a small red onion
- 1 small bunch cilantro
- Salt, as needed
For the citrus dressing:
- 3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 3 Tbsp lemon juice (zest it first!)
- 1 Tbsp honey or maple syrup
- 2 tsp orange zest
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- 1 garlic clove, crushed through a press (or 1/2 tsp garlic powder)
- 1 pinch black pepper
Instructions
- Prep your ingredients—choose whichever way you’d like!
- BY HAND:
- Thinly slice the red cabbage, bell pepper, and red onion (if using).
- Grate the carrot with a box grater.
- Chop the green onions (if using) and cilantro.
- WITH A FOOD PROCESSOR:
- Cut the cabbage into wedges that will fit through your food processor’s feed tube. Set up the slicer attachment. Process the wedges.
- Cut the bell pepper into quarters, remove the stem, pith, and seeds. Stack them together and process with the slicer attachment. If you’re using a red onion, cut into smaller wedges and process it too.
- Replace the slicer attachment with the grater attachment. Process the carrot.
- Chop the green onions (if using) and cilantro by hand.
- BY HAND:
- Optional salting step**: Place the veggies in a mixing bowl, sprinkle with 1/2 tsp salt, toss together, let sit for 10-15 minutes, then drain them, discarding the liquid.
- Whisk or shake together the olive oil, lemon juice, honey, orange zest, lemon zest, garlic, pepper, and 1/2 tsp more salt. Drizzle the dressing over the veggies, and toss to combine.
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Notes
* I used 1/2 of a yellow and 1/2 of a red for more of a rainbow effect. But you can even just use 1 green if that’s what you have on hand. If you don’t have a bell pepper, feel free to use extra carrot and/or cabbage, or omit it and cut back on the dressing.
** You can skip this step if you’re short on time, but if you have even 5-10 extra minutes, I recommend it. It will keep your salad from getting soggy and watering down the dressing. But I’ve made it both ways, and it’s great either way.
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