Red Cabbage Salad with Mayonnaise
Ingredients
4–6 servings
- For the salad
- Red cabbage 1 small head (up to 1 kg)
- Parsley 2–3 sprigs
- Sugar 1 tsp (5 g)
- Salt, ground black pepper to taste
- Mayonnaise or vegetable oil to taste
- For the marinated onion
- Sweet red onion 1
- Sugar ½ tsp (2 g)
- Wine vinegar 1 tbsp
Step-by-step recipe
Cabbage and onion
Pick a small head. Cabbage is usually very dense and hard. One small head (up to 1 kg) is enough to make red cabbage salad for the whole family. If the heads are big, don’t worry: cabbage keeps perfectly in the fridge even cut in half.
It’s best to marinate the sweet red onion a little. Just a little, so the salad doesn’t smell too strongly of onion. Peel the onion and slice it into very thin strips or half-rings.
Sprinkle the onion with ½ tsp sugar (2 g) and add 1 tbsp natural wine vinegar. Let the onion sit for 10–15 minutes.
Drain off all the liquid and squeeze the onion very gently.
Pull the outer leaves off the red cabbage. They’re usually damaged, much tougher and have a bluish bloom.
Shred the cabbage with a sharp knife or any gadget you like. The thinner the cabbage is shredded, the tastier the salad.
Kneading the cabbage
Salt the cabbage lightly and add 1 tsp sugar (5 g).
Squeeze and knead the shredded cabbage with your hands until it releases its juice. That makes the cabbage softer.
Putting the salad together
Add the sweet red onion and finely chopped parsley to the shredded cabbage.
Combine the red cabbage, marinated onion and parsley in a salad bowl. Season the red cabbage salad with more salt and pepper to taste.
Dress it with homemade mayonnaise, which is easy to make. If mayonnaise goes against your principles or your diet, dress the salad with plain vegetable oil to taste.
But it’s worth saying that cabbage salad dressed with just a little good-quality mayonnaise tastes much better.
Calories and macros
185 kcal
Serving ≈ 290 g
- Protein4 g9% of kcal
- Fat11 g54% of kcal
- Carbs17 g38% of kcal
100 g63 kcalProtein 1.3 gFat 3.6 gCarbs 5.7 g
Calculated from the recipe ingredients, excluding salt and spices. Data: USDA and Matvaretabellen.
To Get It Right
If the cabbage is still tough
Red cabbage is tougher than white cabbage, but there’s no need to cook it for a salad. Three things are enough:
- pull off the outer leaves, they’re the toughest;
- shred it as thinly as you can, with a knife, a mandoline or a cabbage grater;
- knead it well with salt and sugar until it releases its juice, then let it stand for 10–15 minutes while the onion marinates.
With mayonnaise and garlic
For a little kick, press 1 small garlic clove into the mayonnaise for the salad and stir. Don’t use too much mayonnaise: the cabbage should stay crunchy, not swim in sauce.
Canteen-style
The canteen-style version is dressed without mayonnaise, with vegetable oil, and the cabbage is kneaded with salt, sugar and a drop of vinegar. Dress this salad with oil and that’s exactly what you’ll get: the marinated onion adds the right tang.
What else to add
- a pickled cucumber, the way our readers make red cabbage salad;
- a boiled egg, diced;
- canned sweetcorn;
- a sweet-and-sour apple.
How long it keeps
Keep the salad in the fridge. Dressed with oil, it easily keeps for a day, so you can make it ahead. If you’re using mayonnaise, it’s best to dress it just before serving.
Have your own trick for this recipe?
Questions and answers
Do you need to marinate the onion for red cabbage salad?
It’s best to marinate red onion a little so the salad doesn’t smell too strongly of onion: sprinkle with ½ tsp sugar (2 g), add 1 tbsp wine vinegar and leave for 10–15 minutes. Then drain the liquid and squeeze the onion gently.
How many calories are in red cabbage salad?
The cabbage itself has just over 20 kcal per 100 g. With oil or lemon juice the salad stays light; most of the calories come from mayonnaise.