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!
I love when food looks so pretty! Great advice about the red beets tho! They sure do turn everything pink lol. I’m definitely going to make your dressing … even if it takes me a while to put the salad together!
I was thinking though that it would be fun to make a regular ‘white’ coleslaw and use beets to turn it fuchsia!
We love spicey and slaw and this is so pretty! But…What makes it spicey?
The jalapeno 😉
Loving all the colours and flavours!!
What beautiful, colorful pictures! I love the combination of all those great vegetables and good advice on the beets. Red beets are wonderful, but not in slaw. 🙂
What lovely colours and more importantly this slaw sounds amazing. I love your tip regarding beets yes they are a nightmare for bleeding into the other veggies. I usually omit beets too.
I’ve heard that if you coat them in olive oil first they won’t bleed, but I didn’t want to chance it 🙂
I’ve made your Vidalia slaw and it was such a huge success, I got asked for the recipe so many times! I can’t wait to try this one, thanks Sue!
Awesome colour, flavour and crunchiness…exactly what a good salad should be.
The color has me mesmerized! So pretty and I bet it tastes wonderful. I could put this on just about anything or just as a show stopping side dish. Very nice recipe Sue! Thanks 🙂
This is such a gorgeous slaw!
Probably something you never thought you’d hear yourself say, huh 😉
Looks so lovely and colorful! Great slaw!