A quick Japanese cabbage salad with a drizzle of a homemade dressing. 5 minutes, and you have a fresh salad to serve with your main course meals.
Global Food Recipes
with Spices and Herbs
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In my neighborhood, we have two excellent Japanese restaurants. One of the two prepares this Japanese crispy cabbage salad.
I discovered this salad accidentally 2 years as they had added some of it to try to my takeaway order. I fell in love with the flavors.
The original cabbage salad was made of regular close slaw cabbage. Then, in September, the Japanese food place started to prepare it with Asian napa cabbage salad.
I loved it even more at this point!
Notes
The cabbage salad has got some Japanese and oriental flavors, which makes it exceptional in terms of the flavor profile.
The ingredients are simple, and you will be able to get those easily in your local surrounding because I have based my recipe on the one I have been ordering from my local Japanese food place.
I don't think this oriental coleslaw with soy sauce is a traditional Japanese cabbage side dish.
It's more like a newer invention, based on Japanese flavors and the conventional coleslaw, such as the German Coleslaw. The dressing includes ingredients which make up for the Japanese flavor profile.
Nonetheless, the salad tastes great with the dressing and is definitely a great new way to enjoy coleslaw at home.
📖 Recipe
Quick Japanese Cabbage Salad & Dressing Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups Green Cabbage *see Notes
For the dressing:
- 2 Tablespoon Rice Vinegar
- 2 Teaspoon Canola Oil
- 2 Teaspoon Soy Sauce
Garnish:
- Sesame Seeds
- Green Onions or Scallion, sliced
Instructions
- Wash your Cabbage well and discard the outer leaves. Cut into slices and bite-sized smaller bits. Keep in a serving bowl.
- Mix all the dressing ingredients together. I like to use a dressing shaker.
- Place the Cabbage into serving bowl and drizzle the dressing over the cabbage.
- Garnish with sesame seeds and cut green onion stalks.
Notes
- Use normal cabbage or napa cabbage, whichever you prefer. Asian napa salad is more like lettuce and not that thick. I personally prefer this Japanese salad with napa cabbage.
- You can use black or white sesame seeds (or both). Both are the same in taste, it's just that the white sesame seeds are without the hull.
- You can also garnish with red chili flakes if you like to add some heat I didn't.
Nutrition
Serving Ideas
I enjoy my salad with a clear soup, such as a Japanese onion soup or my healing clear soup.
Don't limit yourself when you want to serve this oriental cabbage salad as a side dish, it goes great with Asian and non-Asian meals!
The flavors are subtle and work perfectly with most meals. This could be pepper chicken, vibrant orange chicken, a shrimp fried rice or yaki udon noodles.
You can also substitute the dressing and pour a homemade wafu dressing over your cabbage.
Storing and Meal Prep
To meal prep for the week or when you want to store a bigger batch of the sesame cabbage salad, I recommend that you keep the raw and fresh cabbage and the Japanese salad dressing separate.
Only pour the dressing over the salad when you intend to serve and enjoy the salad.
That way, the slaw will remain fresh over a longer period of time in an airtight container in the fridge.
When taking the salad along to work for lunch, keep the rice vinegar dressing in a separate small bowl or container or the shredded cabbage will be drenched in the dressing and will lose it's crisp and fresh appearance.
You can add the sesame seeds and green onions as a garnish just before enjoying this wonderful healthy salad!
