I feel like I’m known for my salad bowl recipes, and I have a feeling that this crunchy green cabbage salad will become your new favorite.
This easy green cabbage salad bowl is packed with a base of crunchy green cabbage and iceberg, sweet cucumbers, toasted walnuts and chewy apricots. Tossed together with spicy and crisp white beans, farro and a parsley lemon tahini dressing.
Are you drooling yet??
And while I do love this salad, the green cabbage salad dressing is what really brings this bowl together. It’s a combo of my lemon tahini dressing and parsley, making the dressing a beautiful green color that pairs so nicely with the rest of the ingredients.
Plus the spicy and crisp white beans in this green cabbage salad recipe just take this salad to the next level (just a warning that you’ll most likely want to eat the beans on their own they’re so good).
Ok, ‘nough said about this green cabbage salad.
Jump to the recipe here, or continue reading for all my tips and tricks to make this recipe perfectly.
Green Cabbage Salad Ingredients
Here’s your grocery list for this raw cabbage salad recipe. As always, the full recipes with measurements is in the recipe card below.
- Green cabbage – obviously
- Iceberg lettuce – for extra crunchiness
- Cucumbers – highly recommend using persian cucumbers for optimal sweetness and crunch
- Farro – wild rice or quinoa also works well
- White beans – cannellini or great northern beans both work well
- Toasted walnuts
- Apricots – they add a nice chewy texture to this crunch-laden salad
- Parsley – for the dressing
- Lemons – again, needed for the dressing
- Tahini – since this makes up the bulk of the dressing, use a good quality tahini for optimal flavor (Soom is my favorite right now)
- Olive oil
- Honey – sub with maple syrup if you want to make this meal fully vegan
- Spices – such as cumin, coriander, cayenne pepper, onion, garlic and salt which are used in the dressing and the white beans
How to Make this Green Cabbage Salad
Ok, so yes, the full recipe with directions is in the recipe card below.
But I wanted to outline my methodology to making this green cabbage salad, because it’ll save you so much time.
- Make the crispy white beans. I like starting off with baking the beans as they take the longest to cook. That way you can utilize the cook time to prep the rest of the salad.
- Once you get the beans in the oven, make the farro as this take a similar amount of time to cook.
- Once the farro and white beans are both cooking, prep the salad (cabbage, iceberg, cucumbers, walnuts, etc.) and make the parsley tahini dressing. I like making the salad this way as it’s much more efficient to prep this way.
- After you’re done prepping the dressing and salad, the beans and farro should be done. And all that’s left to do is assembly the salad bowl.
- I recommend tossing the salad in the dressing and letting it sit for 5 minutes. As the lemon juice in the dressing will naturally soften the cabbage, making it easier to eat and digest.
Anywho, just wanted to share how I cook this bowl, as it’ll save you a solid 30 minutes making it this way.
Tips and Tricks
I don’t have a ton of notes on this shredded green cabbage salad recipe as it’s pretty straightforward, but there are a few key things I wanted to mention.
- Bake the beans long enough so that they ‘pop’ and crack open in the middle. You’ll find around the 25 minute mark that the beans will start to make a ‘popping’ noise. That’s when they’ll be fully done and crisp.
- Speaking of beans, make sure to use a generous amount of olive oil when you bake them. This will help them be crisp and crunchy, instead of dry.
- When it comes to the dressing, use all the ingredients as mentioned, but you will need to add more water as needed. I personally like the dressing super thick, but you can add more water to thin it out to a consistency that you like best. Additionally, feel free to adjust the spices based on how you like them.
- Once last note, this recipe is super easy to make for either one person or for a big family. If making this for yourself (which is what I do) I recommend prepping just enough beans, farro and salad that you’ll eat. Make the full dressing recipe and use however muhc you need — just store the dressing in the fridge for later.
- Ok, last last thing I promise. You can also meal-prep this salad, just make all the components as directed, and store the in the fridge for later. That way you just have to assembly the bowl when you’re ready to eat dinner. And yes, I recommend warming the beans and farro when you assemble the bowl, as it does taste best warm.
Even More Salad Bowl Recipes
- Spicy Roasted Chickpea Salad
- Crunchy Thai Peanut Salad
- Sesame Peanut Soba Noodle Salad
- Easy Tabbouleh Salad
Crunchy Green Cabbage Salad
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 2 1x
- Category: Main Course, Salad
- Cuisine: American
Description
This easy green cabbage salad bowl is packed with a base of crunchy green cabbage and iceberg, sweet cucumbers, toasted walnuts and chewy apricots. Tossed together with spicy and crisp white beans, farro and a parsley lemon tahini dressing.
Ingredients
Crispy White Beans
- 1 can White beans, thoroughly rinsed and drained ((cannellini or northern beans))
- 1 tsp each Cumin, coriander, garlic, onion and cayenne pepper
- 1 tsp Kosher salt
- Olive oil for drizzling
Cabbage Salad
- ⅓ cup Farro, uncooked
- 1 cup Shredded green cabbage
- 1 cup Shredded iceberg lettuce
- 1 large Persian cucumber ((use two if they're small))
- ¼ cup Toasted walnuts, roughly chopped ((or use raw))
- 2 medium Dried apricots, roughly chopped
Parsley Lemon Tahini Dressing
- ¼ cup Water ((use more as needed to thin))
- 3 tbsp Tahini
- 3 tbsp Lemon juice
- 2 tsp Honey ((use an extra tsp if you want the dressing sweeter))
- ¼ tsp each Cumin, coriander, garlic, onion and cayenne pepper
- ¼ tsp Kosher salt
- 1–2 cups Parsley, packed ((I recommend starting with 1 cup and add more depending on how green you want the dressing and how much parsley flavor you want))
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 450°F and line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
- Drain and rinse the white beans and dump onto the prepared sheet pan. Sprinkle over the spices along with a generous drizzle of olive oil. Toss the beans to coat in the spices and oil (recommend using your hands, it's easier).
- Pop the pan in the oven and let the beans bake for 25-30 minutes until they're cracked and crispy. Seriously, the beans will crack open in the middle (they make a popping noise) and that's when you'll know they're fully done.
- While the beans bake, cook the farro according to package instructions.
- Once the farro and beans are cooking, prep the rest of the salad bowl. Add the cabbage, iceberg lettuce, cucumber, apricots and walnuts into a large bowl or shallow dish. Set aside.
- To make the dressing, add all the ingredients into a jar and blend together with an immersion blender. You can use a regular blender, but an immersion blender is easier for this dressing. Blend until the dressing is a vibrant green and silky smooth. A few parsley leaves is fine.
- Depending on how much parsley flavor (and green color) you want, add more parsley as needed. Additionally, as you add more parsley, add more water to thin the dressing out, otherwise the blender won't be able to emulsify the dressing properly.
- At this tpoint, the beans and farro should be done cooking. Dump the beans and farro into the bowl of cabbage and greens, and drizzle over a generous amount of the dressing overtop. Toss together until everything is throroughly coated with the tahini dressing. Adjust for salt and enjoy!
Delicious 😋
Only one cup of cabbage and one cup of iceberg lettuce?
Yep, it serves 2 medium portions
Hi how do you roast the walnuts?
Bake them on a sheet pan for 4-5 minutes at 450°F. Just keep a sharp eye on them while they bake because they burn very quickly!
Can you omit farro?
Absolutely!