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!
Cannot 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
I 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!
Exactly!!!! 😉
So gorgeous! Craving for a bowl of this now!
I love these rainbow colors, such a great summer slaw!
LOVE 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!
Beautiful! I’m a coleslaw lover, so will definitely be trying this 🙂
Love 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!
This 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!
This is absolutely stunning. The colour is just out of this world. Good tip about the red beets too.
Thanks Kim <3