Red Cabbage Salad
on Nov 09, 2025
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Fresh with incredible crunch, this red cabbage salad has crisp apples, carrots, scallions and toasted almonds. The dressing is what makes it even more special. I toss it in a tahini lemon vinaigrette that’s nutty with a touch of creaminess, making it perfect for a hearty base like shredded cabbage. This cabbage salad will take you from the first days of fall all the way through winter.
Don’t miss my collection of cabbage recipes with salads, side dishes and more.
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Cabbage is a fantastic base for crunchy salads. Too often cabbage is reserved for coleslaw when it also works for hearty salads with the kind of texture and bite that will keep you coming back for more. The apples and carrots in this salad also have this crispness.
Tahini will be your new favorite addition to vinaigrettes. Made with apple cider vinegar and lemon juice, this dressing has all the acidity that you expect from a vinaigrette plus light creaminess and nutty flavor.
This fall-winter salad is great for lunch or dinner. I would also serve it at Thanksgiving or another holiday meal. Don’t underestimate the importance of having salads at these big spreads. The attention might be on the main dish and warm sides, but fresh, tasty and bright recipes balance everything out.
The Ingredients
This is what you need:
- Cabbage: Look for a small red cabbage. I’m always amazed at the density of the leaves. When you cut it, you will end up with a lot. You can also find bags of shredded red cabbage in the refrigerator case in the produce section at the grocery.
- Apples: Crisp apple varieties are best in salads. My favorites are Pink Lady or Honeycrisp apples. The red color of the cabbage will stain the apples pale pink.
- Carrots: You can shred the carrots yourself with the big holes of a box grater or the shredding disk on your food processor. Usually, I don’t buy precut vegetables, but carrots are an exception. Packaged ones are in uniform shreds.
- Scallions give the salad mild green onion flavor. They are always a good choice with cabbage.
- Almonds: Make sure to toast your sliced almonds before you mix them into the salad. This really brings out their flavor. You can do this on a sheet pan in a 350-degree F oven for 5-7 minutes.
- Parsley: I round out the salad with chopped fresh herbs.
- Creamy tahini vinaigrette: The dressing ingredients include minced garlic, whole grain mustard, tahini, kosher salt, black pepper, fresh lemon juice, apple cider vinegar and extra virgin olive oil.
How To Make This Red Cabbage Salad
1. Combine the salad ingredients in a big bowl. That includes the shredded cabbage, carrots, apples, scallions, almonds and parsley.
2. Make the vinaigrette. Stir the minced garlic, mustard, tahini, lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, oil, salt and pepper in a small bowl.
3. Drizzle the vinaigrette into the salad. Toss to combine.
Serving
As mentioned, this red cabbage salad works as a main dish salad for lunch or dinner. To make it more hearty, you can stir in cooked quinoa, brown rice or farro. For proteins, you can add tofu or roasted chicken. Try serving it with roasted carrot soup or kabocha squash soup. This salad will also add color and freshness to holiday meals like Thanksgiving.
Leftovers & Storage
You can store the salad in an airtight container in the refrigerator up to 3 days. The cabbage and apples will lose a little of their crispness. Keep leftover dressing into a separate container. This will help it maintain more of its crunch. If you know you aren’t going to eat the entire salad at once, then don’t toss all of it in the vinaigrette.
Allow leftover salad dressing to sit at room temperature for at least 20 minutes before you serve it. Then the oil has a chance to turn to liquid again. The chill of the fridge usually hardens it.
Recipe Tips
- To cut a head of cabbage, first pull off the outer leaves. Then slice it in half. Cut the halves in half cut side down, so you end up with quarters. After that, trim the stems at the bottoms of each section. Finally, thinly slice the cabbage perpendicular to the stem.
- To give the red cabbage salad extra crunch and some sweetness, you can add pomegranate seeds. They are tart and juicy and taste great in fall salads especially if you are serving them for Thanksgiving or Christmas.
- You can make the dressing up to 3 days in advance. Let it sit out at room temperature for 20 minutes before you use it. This will give the oil and tahini a chance to liquify again if it hardens from the cold temperature in the refrigerator.
More Cabbage Recipes
Roasted Red Cabbage
Baked Tofu Cabbage Salad
Asian Cabbage Salad
Mixed Cabbage Apple Salad
Savoy Cabbage Salad
Napa Cabbage Salad
Oven-Roasted Cabbage Wedges
Red Cabbage Slaw
Find more salad ideas in my seasonal salad roundup featuring leafy green salads, bean salads and pasta salads.
Red Cabbage Salad
Ingredients
For salad
- 1 small head red cabbage, shredded (about 6 cups)
- 1 cup shredded carrots
- 2 crisp apples, cut into matchsticks
- 3 scallions, thinly sliced
- 1/4 cup toasted sliced almonds
- 1 tablespoon chopped parsley
For dressing
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1 tablespoon whole grain mustard
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 lemon, juice
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 1/4 cup olive oil
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine the cabbage, carrots, apples, scallions, almonds and parsley.
- For the vinaigrette, whisk the garlic, mustard, tahini, salt, pepper, lemon juice, apple cider vinegar and olive oil in a small bowl.
- Drizzle the dressing into the salad, tossing to combine.
Notes
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
