This simple cabbage carrot salad is made with thin shreds of red cabbage and carrots, fresh mint and parsley, green onions, and a lime dressing. It’s the perfect crunchy slaw to serve as a vegan and dairy free side or bring to a potluck! Every bite is refreshing, colorful, and nutritious.

Cabbage carrot slaw in a large bowl next to a kitchen towel and lime half.

Summer is right around the corner, which for veggie lovers like you and me means…it’s almost slaw season! A good slaw is the PERFECT side dish for warm weather meals, barbecues, and potlucks. With Memorial Day this weekend, perhaps you’re in the market for a new recipe that’s tasty yet easy.

Enter: this new red cabbage carrot salad! It’s supremely fresh, thanks to a boatload of herbs (hi mint, hi parsley) and tossed in the easiest dressing made with lime juice and olive oil. I’m totally making it all summer long, and I hope you’ll join me.

This recipe is fully vegan like the Red Cabbage Slaw with Beets, but don’t forget about some of my non-vegan cabbage or carrot salads! The Greek Yogurt Coleslaw with Radishes and Carrot Raisin Salad with Pineapple and Yogurt Dressing also deserve a spot on your summer menus.

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Ingredients and Substitutions
Instructions
Equipment
Storage
More Easy Salads
📖 Recipe
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Ingredients and Substitutions

Cabbage: I prefer red cabbage for this recipe, but you can use green cabbage as a substitute. To save time, use a bag of pre-shredded cabbage. If you are shredding it yourself, I love to use a mandoline to get thin pieces. Check out my tutorial on How to Shred Cabbage for more info.
Carrots: Use a bag of pre-shredded carrots or shred them yourself.
Green onions: Also known as scallions. If you want to sub red or yellow onion, I recommend letting it soak in the dressing a little to soften the bite.
Mint and parsley: Mint is my favorite addition to a cabbage carrot salad, but if you don’t have it on hand, consider subbing basil or cilantro.
Lime juice: Swap in lemon juice or apple cider vinegar if you don’t have limes.
Sugar: A little sugar helps balance the flavors, since cabbage can be bitter. If you don’t want to use granulated sugar, sub honey or maple syrup or just omit it entirely.
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt

Instructions

The full recipe card for cabbage carrot salad is at the bottom of the post. Here’s a preview of the (very easy!) steps.

Chopped ingredients for the simple cabbage carrot slaw on a cutting board.

Prep the ingredients. Shredding the cabbage and carrots takes the most time, but you can cut back on this time immensely by using pre-shredded versions!

Cabbage carrot slaw in a stainless steel mixing bowl with tongs.

Combine the slaw ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Whisk together the dressing, pour over the salad, and toss until coated.

Equipment

One of my favorite tools to use when making this salad is the Oxo Complete Grate and Slice Set. I use the mandoline slicer in the set for the cabbage and the julienne slicer for the carrots. You can also just use a hand grater or julienne peeler to shred the carrots.

Storage

Keep leftover cabbage carrot salad in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 to 5 days. The slaw tends to taste best when it’s consumed right away or on the same day it’s made, since it loses some of its crunchy texture the longer it sits in the dressing.

If you want to make the recipe in advance, keep the vegetables and herbs in a covered bowl and the dressing in a separate container. Dress the salad right before serving.

Simple cabbage carrot slaw in a serving bowl.

More Easy Salads

If you’re loving this refreshing slaw, check out these other easy salads while you’re here:

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