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This delicious Cabbage Salad is a powerhouse of veggies with a touch of {optional} bacon. A hearty make-ahead salad that is packed with so much flavor, it might just become your new favorite side dish.
If salads typically make you cringe, this chopped cabbage and kale salad might just change your mind!
It’s packed with flavor and has a delicious texture similar to coleslaw. Even better, we’re putting some bacon, AKA the candy bar of meats, in it!
Looking for more make-ahead salad ideas? Check out our Tortellini Pasta Salad, Artichoke Salad, Pea Salad, and Instant Pot Potato Salad.
Cabbage Salad Ingredients
This recipe has:
- Cabbage – both green and red (though we all know it’s purple…)
- Kale – or sub in your favorite hearty greens
- Carrots
- Celery
- Seeds – I like pumpkin and sunflower
- Bacon but this is entirely optional
- Dressing of your choice
If you have leftover cabbage to use up, try making Air Fryer Egg Rolls, Fried Cabbage and Bacon, or Air Fryer Cabbage.
How to Make Cabbage Salad
*I’ll walk you through it here with some photos and tips, and you’ll also find a printable recipe card at the bottom of the post with exact measurements, etc. You can click “jump to recipe” to skip down.
If you’re adding the bacon to this recipe, start by baking it in the oven or cooking a few slices in a skillet on the stovetop or Air Fryer Bacon. This post on how to cook bacon in the oven has more details on the oven method.
If you have a food processor with a shredding disc, it will make very quick work of chopping all these veggies. Just make sure you use the “pulse” or “chop” function to keep the veggies from getting pureed.
Without a food processor, you can still easily make this salad by using a chef’s knife and a cutting board.
Set up a large mixing bowl so that you can add the various veggies to it as you slice, chop, and prep each ingredient.
Add the seeds and bacon to the veggies and toss everything together. I recommend you don’t add the dressing to the entire batch unless you plan to serve it at a large gathering.
This salad will keep for days in the fridge, and all the veggies will stay crisp if you add the dressing to each portion prior to serving.
How to Store
This recipe will keep in the fridge for up to 5 days. It is better to store it without the dressing. Instead, dress each individual portion just before serving.
Cabbage Salad Variations
You can further dress this salad up by adding roasted veggies Crispy Butternut Squash or Air Fryer Roasted Beets, chunks of roasted garlic (related: Air Fryer Roasted Garlic and Instant Pot Roasted Garlic), chopped nuts or seeds, dried fruit, or even cheese.
Frequently Asked Questions
Any cabbage you have on hand will work for this salad.
I love a mix of green and red/purple cabbage for the colors, but green savoy or Napa cabbage would also be delicious. Just a note, Napa cabbage is often 2-3x the price of green cabbage.
If you can’t find any cabbage, sliced baby bok choy would be a delicious substitution.
Lacinato kale is my go-to here (it might also be referred to as “dinosaur kale” or “Tuscan kale”). It has a flat leaf and a pleasant flavor.
In my humble opinion, curly or red Russian kale makes me feel like I’m a cow chewing its cud. Moo.
This cabbage salad uses a light dressing, whereas coleslaw is made with a mayo or Greek yogurt-based dressing. The dressing is very saucy and coats all of the cabbage and carrots.
Coleslaw dressing usually also contains white or rice vinegar.
If you’re vegetarian or vegan, using tempeh bacon will give your salad an amazing flavor! This post can teach you how to make tempeh bacon for an awesome flavor boost.
You can also add white beans or even Instant Pot Chickpeas.
What to Serve with Cabbage Salad
Air Fryer Tofu or Halloumi cheese would be amazing in this kale chop salad. Halloumi can be grilled or fried for an awesome crispy texture. Also, a slice (or two) of Air Fryer Texas Toast would be delicious.
For the dressing, I prefer poppyseed dressing or Lemon Dijon Dressing, but Yogurt Ranch Dressing would work too! Other great options: Lemon Tahini Salad Dressing, Avocado Ranch, or Homemade Green Goddess.
Pro Tips/Recipe Notes:
- Save leftover kale in the freezer! Check out our tutorial on How to Freeze Kale.
- This salad makes A TON, so I recommend you add your favorite dressing to each portion when you serve it. This will keep the salad from wilting and getting soggy in the fridge.
- Don’t love kale? You can add your favorite green instead! I recommend adding them to each individual serving as most greens won’t hold up in a chopped salad stored over a few days.
WEIGHT WATCHERS POINTS
One serving has 1 WW Freestyle SmartPoints.
Cabbage Salad
Ingredients
- 5 cups kale {cut into thin ribbons}
- 4 cups green cabbage {chopped}
- 4 cups purple cabbage {chopped}
- 2 cups carrots {chopped}{about 3 medium carrots}
- 1 cup celery {chopped}{about 2 stalks celery}
- 1/3 cup sunflower seeds
- 1/3 cup raw pumpkin seeds
- 1 cup bacon {cooked, cooled, and minced}
- Dressing of your choice
Instructions
- Wash and dry all produce.
- Lay your kale on a cutting board, and remove the ribs by slicing along the middle of each side. Thinly chop and place in a large mixing bowl.5 cups kale
- Finely chop the cabbage or pulse in a food processor. Add to the mixing bowl.4 cups green cabbage, 4 cups purple cabbage
- Peel and chop the carrots or pulse in a food processor. Add to the mixing bowl.2 cups carrots
- Chop the celery and add it to the bowl.1 cup celery
- Add sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and chopped bacon.1/3 cup sunflower seeds, 1/3 cup raw pumpkin seeds, 1 cup bacon
- Mix all ingredients with tongs and top each serving with your dressing of choice.Dressing of your choice
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
This is by far one of our favorite ways to eat veggies. With the heat and humidity on MI this summer, I think this will need to be a staple. I’ll cook up some chicken, hard boiled eggs, and get some deli meat to round it it.
Looks like I’ve loved this salad for about 6 years now!!!
Just recommended this for the millionth time. And now I want to make it.
I love this salad so much!
You’re the sweetest, thank you Tina! I need to take some updated photos of it soon.
Wow, what a great idea!
We LOVE this salad. It’s especially amazing with a hard boiled egg or two for work lunches. So yummy! Thank you!
Adding hardboiled eggs = genius move Brandi!
A kitchen hack for removing the central rib in chard, kale, spinach etc… instead of slicing twice for both sides of the rib, I fold the leaf in half and then just slice once down the side of the rib! I know, it only takes a second or two off the time, but when you are doing a TON of leaves for any sort of dish, it just makes the job a little quicker!
That is a great hack!
Do you eat this salad with a spoon? 🙂 I think I’ll shave the carrots and chop into little ribbons. I kind of dislike chunks of carrots in salads. Maybe toss with goddess dressing!
Nah, I used a fork! 🙂
I love chunks of carrots, but ribbons would be fine too. If you already have your food processor out, maybe shred them in that?
Adding these ingredients to my grocery list. Looks easy enough that I might insist that the hubby and child make it.
Did they do it? Did you pull the “I’m busy with school” car d and make them do this? 🙂
We went camping (for the first time!) this weekend so we haven’t tried the salad yet. These items are on the list for tomorrows grocery shopping.
On a side note, the hubby did run to the store after we got back from camping to pick up hot dogs and tater tots that HE made for supper so I could finish up my school work :0)
Only thing missing from the salad is the Pork BBQ and bun. I am with Troy….everything is better on bread 🙂
I would totally do this as a mason jar salad!! I make one very similar but I add chopped dates or raisins for a little pop of sweetness! Sweet, salty, bacon = Yumm!!
This looks yummy and healthy. I wonder if it would work as a mason jar salad for lunches?
I don’t see why not! But even though I don’t love salads, I can eat a ton of this one. I’d have to probably do a quart mason jar, because a pint wouldn’t be enough for how quickly I can mow this down.