Cabbage Apple Salad
This Cabbage Apple Salad is the perfect blend of fresh cabbage, crunchy apples, and a sweet dressing that has a little hint of spice. It’s the perfect side dish to go with your favorite BBQ foods.
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Not only is this fresh salad great for potlucks and bbq’s but it also makes a tasty fall side dish. The fresh apple flavor just makes this dish scream fall.
Ingredients
Here is a quick list of the simple ingredients that you need to make this delicious recipe. You can find the full list of ingredients and amounts in the recipe card.
- Coleslaw mix
- Sliced Granny Smith apple
- Diced celery
- Sliced green onions
- Apple cider vinegar
- Granulated white sugar
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- Dijon mustard
- Red pepper flakes
- Mayonnaise
How to Make Cabbage Apple Salad
This is a quick overview of the steps that you need to make this apple slaw recipe. The full recipe and steps will be listed in the recipe card at the bottom of the post.
Make the salad base by mixing the coleslaw mix, apples, celery, and green onions in a large bowl.
Make the dressing by heating apple cider vinegar, granulated sugar, olive oil, mustard, and red pepper flakes in a medium saucepan. heat over medium heat and stir until the sugar is dissolved.
Whisk in the mayo to the dressing while it is still hot.
Pour the warm dressing over the salad, and mix well. Cover and then store in the fridge for at least one hour before serving.
Hint: For this recipe, you want to add the dressing to the salad while it is still warm. This will help soften the cabbage and apples slightly.
Variations
- Less Spice – Not a fan of spice? You can leave the red pepper flakes out of the dressing.
- Apples – I like the flavor the sour apples add to this salad, however, you can use sweet apples like Honeycrisp instead if you prefer.
- Miracle Whip – Miracle Whip can be used in place of the mayo if that’s what you have on hand.
- Greek Yogurt – Not a fan of mayo? You can use plain Greek yogurt instead of mayo for this recipe.
If you love delicious salads like this one then you may also enjoy this Pimento Potato Salad recipe.
Equipment
- Medium saucepan
- Large bowl – I like to use glass.
Storage
Store this salad in an airtight container in the fridge for up to three days. If you don’t have a lid for your bowl you can cover it with tightly with plastic wrap to keep this fresh.
Wendy’s Test Kitchen Tips
- Coleslaw mix is usually a blend of thinly sliced green cabbage, red cabbage, and carrots. You can make your own mix instead of buying the bag to save a little money.
- You don’t want to dressing to boil so don’t leave it unattended on the stove. It just needs to be warm enough to allow the sugar to dissolve.
- Don’t skimp on the chill time, this allows the flavors to meld together. Howver, it can sit in the fridge for up to 12 hours before you serve it.
- The dressing may become runny the longer it sits, so try to make just enough for your event.
FAQ
The only difference is that cabbage is an ingredient that is used in coleslaw.
The vinegar in the dressing should prevent from turning brown. However, if you want to make sure they don’t turn, you can dip them in water and lemon juice or in Fruit Fresh.
What to serve with Apple Coleslaw
I don’t know what it is about coleslaw but I just think it pairs so well with pork, and my pork recipes are Air Fryer Pulled Pork, Slow Cooker Apple Pork Loin or Slow Cooker Pulled Pork Sliders.
Related
Looking for other side dish recipes like this? Try these:
Cabbage Apple Salad
Equipment
- Large bowl
- saucepan
- whisk
Ingredients
- 16 ounces coleslaw mix coleslaw mix
- 1 Granny Smith apple sliced into thin matchsticks
- ½ cup celery diced
- 5 green onions finely sliced
For the Dressing
- ½ cup apple cider vinegar
- ½ cup granulated white sugar
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- ¾ cup mayonnaise
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine the coleslaw mix, sliced Granny Smith apple, celery, and finely sliced green onions.
- In a saucepan over medium heat, whisk together the apple cider vinegar, granulated white sugar, olive oil, Dijon mustard, and red pepper flakes. Bring the dressing to a simmer, stirring until the sugar is dissolved.
- Whisk the mayonnaise into the dressing.
- Pour the warm dressing over the cabbage mixture in the bowl. Toss everything together to ensure the cabbage, apple, and onions are well coated.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator. Allow the flavors to meld and the slaw to chill for at least 1 hour.
Notes
- Coleslaw mix is usually a blend of thinly sliced green cabbage, red cabbage, and carrots. You can make your own mix instead of buying the bag to save a little money.
- You don’t want to dressing to boil so don’t leave it unattended on the stove. It just needs to be warm enough to allow the sugar to dissolve.
- Don’t skimp on the chill time, this allows the flavors to meld together. Howver, it can sit in the fridge for up to 12 hours before you serve it.
- The dressing may become runny the longer it sits, so try to make just enough for your event.
Disclaimer:
Any nutritional data I provide is an approximation and actual dietary information can vary based on ingredients and proportion sizes.
This is a great base, just for kicks I added dried cranberries and chopped pecans. Got rave reviews at the party I took it to.
Oh I bet the cranberries and pecans were amazing in it. I’m going to try that!