This healthy Spicy Rainbow Slaw with a tangy lemon yogurt dressing is made with red and green cabbage, bell peppers, watermelon radishes, jicama, and a touch of jalapeno complements any summer meal — it’s cooling, crunchy, and crazy colorful!
I adore coleslaw — it’s right up there with salsa as one of the most perfect foods, especially in hot weather. It’s as healthy as it is versatile, and I think it adds that perfect touch to so many summer classics, from hot dogs and burgers to fish tacos and grilled kabobs. I had a bit of fun with this one, hunting down the most day-glo veggies I could find for a rainbow effect.
Every batch will be a different color scheme, depending on what you find at your store or farmer’s market!
I employed a combination of shredding techniques depending on the particular veggies. I used my food processor with the slicing blade for some (red cabbage) and the shredding blade for others (carrots, jicama.)Â I used a sharp knife to finely shred my Savoy cabbage, watermelon radishes, and peppers. I used my mandoline slicer to get ultra thin slices of onion. You don’t need to use all these methods, a good sharp knife will do the trick for everything too.
TIP:Â Veggies that contain a lot of moisture, like onions or peppers, are better thinly sliced than grated. Grating releases too much water and makes them mushy.
My dressing is a combination of yogurt, buttermilk, lemon, and poppy seeds. It’s skinny, tangy, and delicious.
TIP:Â Add a bit of celery seed to the salad for a classic coleslaw flavor.
I’m highly recommending this slaw, I brought it to a barbecue yesterday and everybody raved. The bright pink watermelon radish was especially intriguing.
TIP:Â Stay away from red beets in this slaw. While they’re delicious and can certainly be shredded and eaten raw, they will bleed their color and turn the salad into a uniform shade of pink. If you want to use beets, use a golden, or chioga variety instead.
Spicy Rainbow Slaw
Ingredients
- red cabbage thinly sliced
- Savoy cabbage thinly sliced
- red white, or sweet onion, thinly sliced
- jicama finely julienned
- watermelon radish finely julienned
- carrots shredded
- red green, yellow, or orange bell peppers, finely julienned
- 1 jalapeno minced, seeds and all
- 1 tsp celery seed
Lemon Yogurt Poppy Seed Dressing
- 4 Tbsp Greek yogurt
- 4 Tbsp cultured buttermilk
- juice of 1 lemon
- 1 tsp poppy seeds
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Use whatever combination of veggies you like, to make about 4 cups of slaw. Mix the shredded veggies in a large bowl and toss to combine them.
- Whisk together the dressing and taste to adjust any of the seasonings. Pour on the dressing and toss really well to distribute it. Refrigerate for at least a couple of hours before serving.
notes:
- Don’t shy away from the buttermilk in this Spicy Rainbow Slaw, it’s low in fat and packed with tangy flavor.
- Coleslaw does fine for a few hours in the refrigerator, in fact it gets better as it sits for a while, allowing the dressing flavors to penetrate the raw veggies.
don’t forget to pin this amazing Rainbow Slaw!
25 Comments
SallyBR
July 5, 2016 at 11:12 amCannot tell you how much I LOVE that your dressing doesn’t involve mayo – here I am in standing ovation… to me, and I realize I’m part of a minority – mayo just ruins the lightness of it, it is cloying, heavy, way too oily
I also adore coleslaw, but for some silly reason rarely make it from scratch – I am pinning this right away
Sue
July 5, 2016 at 11:19 amI actually didn’t think about the no-mayo thing, or I would have made more of it in the post — it just came naturally not to use it, I think buttermilk is so fantastic!
SallyBR
July 5, 2016 at 2:00 pmExactly!!!! 😉
Katherine | Omnivore's Cookbook
July 5, 2016 at 5:22 amSo gorgeous! Craving for a bowl of this now!
Laura | Tutti Dolci
July 3, 2016 at 7:54 pmI love these rainbow colors, such a great summer slaw!
Robyn @ Simply Fresh Dinners
July 3, 2016 at 7:22 amLOVE this dressing! I’m such a big fan of slaw in the summer months and I believe it’s one of the best ways for non-veggie eaters to get some nutrition, lol. I think all the gorgeous colours blind them!
Jennifer @ Seasons and Suppers
July 3, 2016 at 6:47 amBeautiful! I’m a coleslaw lover, so will definitely be trying this 🙂
Chris Scheuer
July 3, 2016 at 6:33 amLove all the bright pretty colors and crunchiness of this slaw. I can see why it disappeared. I know I could make a major dent in it all by myself!
Sara
July 2, 2016 at 11:14 pmThis slaw is so pretty! I have a rainbow slaw recipe on my site too but it’s not the same as yours, definitely need to try your version soon!
Kim
July 2, 2016 at 5:59 pmThis is absolutely stunning. The colour is just out of this world. Good tip about the red beets too.
Sue
July 3, 2016 at 11:00 amThanks Kim <3