A simple healthy recipe for Asian Slaw – easy and crunchy, this vegan slaw can be made ahead and is delicious alongside miso salmon, or these easy salmon cakes, ginger tofu, or stuffed into tacos or added to buddha bowls—a great way to add more cruciferous veggies into our everyday meals. See our 25+ Amazing Cabbage Recipes!
This Asian Cabbage Slaw is easy to make and packed full of flavor! A wonderful excuse to purchase one of those stunning cabbages at the farmers’ market. It’s also a fantastic way to use up all the stray veggies in the fridge- that remaining half cabbage, the stray carrot or parsnip, or the leftover bell pepper.
If you are part of a CSA or shop at the farmers market, many of the veggies you’ll find there can be added to this slaw – like kohlrabi, turnips, beets, or brussels sprouts. Such an easy, useful way to add more veggies into our everyday diet.
How to Make Asian Slaw! | video
Why you’ll love this recipe: The Asian Slaw Dressing!
The Asian Slaw Dressing is the best! Not only is it made with accessible ingredients you most likely have in your pantry, but it also seems to have the right balance of sweetness, tartness, and depth with just a little heat. And of course, you can personalize it even further to your own tastes.
Asian Slaw Ingredients!
- Cabbage -any type will work here- purple, green, napa cabbage – or other shreddable veggies- carrots, bell pepper, snow peas, kohlrabi, jicama, or use a broccoli “slaw”. You’ll need 6-7 cups total for this recipe.
- Cilantro – optional, but adds so much flavor here as a beautiful color.
- Scallions- I love the flavor of green onions here; chives would also work, or sub-thinly sliced red onion in a pinch.
- Olive oil and toasted sesame oil – for richness.
- Rice wine vinegar –rice wine vinegar is milder than most other vinegar and less acidic. We use unseasoned rice vinegar– if yours is “seasoned” you may need to cut back on the sweetener here!
- Sweetener- maple syrup, honey, agave, sugar, or coconut sugar
- Soy sauce (or use a gluten-free alternative like Braggs or Coconut Amino Acids)
- Fresh ginger and garlic- use fresh grated ginger and garlic, or ginger paste and garlic paste. I do not recommend ground ginger powder.
- Chili paste (optional) or chili flakes.
How to make Asian Slaw
- Slice the cabbage finely and add it to a large bowl. Add cilantro and scallions if you like.
- Whisk Asian Slaw Dressing ingredients together in a small bowl.
- Pour the Asian dressing into slaw and toss well. Taste, adjust salt, honey and sesame oil to taste.
- Garnish with sesame seeds!
Time-saving Slaw Tips
- If short on time, many grocery stores offer gourmet “slaw mixes” already pre-shredded! These are perfect for this recipe: brussel sprouts slaw, broccoli slaw, carrot slaw… you get the idea. It’s a basic recipe designed to be used as a base for your own creations.
- If you like, you can use ginger paste (in a tube) and garlic paste in a tube to save time!
Storage and Make ahead
This Asian slaw recipe will keep up to 4 days in an airtight container in the refrigerator. You can prep the cabbage up to 3 days ahead as well as the dressing and toss before serving- leaving the sesame seeds off until serving.
What to serve with Asian Slaw
- Thai Turkey Burger w/ Crunchy Asian Slaw
- Seared Ahi Tuna Salad
- Salmon Cakes
- Japanese Salmon Rice Bowls
- Chicken Katsu (or Tofu Katsu!)
- Simple Baked Miso Salmon
- Seasoned Japanese Rice with Furikake
- Teriyaki Salmon with Baby Bok Choy
- Instant Pot Teriyaki Chicken
- Thai Fried Rice
This is also a great way to use up stray veggies in the fridge, incorporating more nutrients into the slaw- salad turnips, kohlrabi, jicama, radishes… pretty much anything crunchy!
Hope you are having a great week, finding the beauty in what surrounds you. Even if it is simply in the face of cabbage, a beautiful, giant edible flower full of healing nutrients.
xoxo
More from Feasting At Home
Easy Crunchy Asian Slaw (w/ BEST Asian Dressing!)
- Prep Time: 20
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 6
- Category: Salad, vegan, slaw, dressing
- Method: tossed
- Cuisine: Asian
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Easy Crunchy Asian Slaw with the Best Asian Dressing! A simple vegan slaw with that can be made in 20 minutes and made ahead! Serve this alongside fish, tofu, or chicken or stuffed into tacos, topped onto burgers, or added to buddha bowls.
Ingredients
- 2 – 2 1/4 lb cabbage – shredded-roughly 6-7 cups (see notes)
- 3 scallions, sliced
- 1 cup cilantro, chopped (or sub Italian Parsley)
Asian Slaw Dressing:
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1–3 teaspoons toasted sesame oil (start conservatively add more to taste at the end)
- 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
- 3 tablespoons sugar, maple syrup, honey, or coconut sugar
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce (or GF alternative like Braggs or Coconut Amino Acids)
- 1 tablespoon fresh ginger, grated, or use ginger paste
- 1 garlic clove, grated or use garlic paste ( garlic is optional, adds punchy flavor)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon chili flakes or chili paste ( optional)
Optional toppings:
- Toasted sesame seeds
- roasted, crushed peanuts or cashews
Instructions
- Toss slaw ingredients together in a large bowl. Add cilantro and scallions.
- Whisk Asian Slaw Dressing ingredients together in a small bowl.
- Pour dressing into slaw and toss well. Taste, adjust salt, honey and sesame oil to taste.
- Garnish with sesame seeds and/ or nuts.
Notes
- Feel free to Substitute shredded carrots, bell pepper, snow peas, broccoli slaw, shredded Brussels sprouts, for part of the cabbage. ( For example, I’ll often do 5 cups cabbage, 1 cup carrots, 1 cup bell pepper)
- Salad will keep up to 3-4 days in the fridge.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cup
- Calories: 179
- Sugar: 14.9 g
- Sodium: 297.9 mg
- Fat: 11.8 g
- Saturated Fat: 2.9 g
- Carbohydrates: 18.6 g
- Fiber: 2 g
- Protein: 2.1 g
- Cholesterol: 0.3 mg
I made this slaw as a side to seared tuna and it was so tasty! I followed the slaw dressing recipe as written and I immediately thought it would be great as a marinade as well! Definitely making this again!
Honestly, this slaw is so ideal for quarantine cooking as all the ingredients have quite a long shelf-life. On top of that, the dressing is so delicious that I’m sure I’ll come back to it for side salads for other asian-inspired meals! I served it as a main with avocado and shrimp and was thouroughly imrpressed.
Glad you liked it!
Very colorful and appealing to the eye! Also VERY DELICIOUS! YUM YUM
Not only is the salad delicious (I used red cabbage) the dressing is amazing!! I used only 2 TBsp.’s of honey and opted for chili paste which I increased to 1 Tsp. I topped my salad with chopped roasted almonds (that’s what I had on hand). I think I’ve been looking for an Asian Dressing like this my entire life. This is the one!
Thanks so much- glad you liked it!
Really easy and very versatile. I used green cabbage and shredded carrots and part of a red bell pepper. I didn’t have cilantro or scallions but it still turned out excellent. Served it with potstickers. Family loved it
Perfect Lauren!
Honestly, this recipe is the bomb!
This will be our second time making it in a week during our self-quarantining period 😉 I gotta tell ya, It’s nice to have something fresh to accompany our cabinet rations! I too substituted mayo for the olive oil. Gave it a much creamier texture. Thanks for sharing such a delicious dish! Even though our trip to Bora Bora was cancelled, the fam and I can still have some sort of Asian influence on our menu tonight.
Great to hear!
I made this tonight with the ginger sesame tofu and the kyoto sweet potatoes, and as I made the dressing I wondered ‘is this going to be too salty with all three dishes having soy and miso?’ NOPE, they were all perfect together, and I’m looking forward to eating this for lunch AND dinner again tomorrow!
Love the combo! Thanks Maigen!
Amazing flavor. Served this with Lemon Chicken and white rice. Perfect meal.
This is my favorite slaw. So fresh tasting and flavorful. Thanks
Absolutely delicious 😋
Perfect!!
Really delicious. I used bagged cole slaw mix and cut back on the honey and oils. Next time I’ll try some nuts. I added sesame seeds. I might do half and half parsley and cilantro. I served with home made cod cakes and leftover sweet potato. What a fabulous meal!!
Amazing. Delicious and flavorful
I put this in a wrap with avocado and greens.. it was great
This is a perfect complement for any meat, fish, or chicken dish.
Thanx so much
Wendy Ayr
Scotland
Thanks Wendy! Glad you enjoyed it!
Loveseat this slaw! The dressing was perfect, and it paired so well with the salmon patties!
Awesome Nichole! Great to hear!
I love this recipe. I’ve made it several times with different vegetables. Thanks for the awesome recipe!
Thank YOU Lea- so happy you are enjoying this!
Wanted to use up a red cabbage that has been floating around in the fridge forever 😏 but wanted something to go with a Asian inspired rice bowl. This was perfect!! The flavour was sublime and the crunch in the rice bowl hit the spot (since I ran out of cucumbers).
Think I could eat this daily!! Thanks!!
This was wired
Best Dressing EVER!!! I added 3 table spoons of mayo instead of olive oil, made the rest according to recipe, and Oh My Word! I could drank the dressing.
Have made salad 2x this week!
So glad you are enjoying it! Tell me what are you serving it with!??
yum. this is a delicious salad.
This is by far the best Asian slaw recipe I’ve made ! Loved the freshness with the veggies, the herbs, and nuts added ! Fantastic! !!!❤️❤️❤️😋
Great slaw, fun to make too.
Fresh ginger /a little sweet/hot;
Can’t go wrong.
Fabulous dinner. I only had tuna, but it turned out really well. Easy to make, tasty and great textures. The Asian Slaw went so well with the fish. It all lived up to its expectations. Thank you so much for sharing
Great to hear!
This recipe is brilliant. The salad dressing is absolutely delicious.
So happy you like it!