Crunchy Asian Cabbage Salad with Mandarin Oranges
on May 30, 2025
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This easy Asian Cabbage Salad recipe features crisp vegetables, mandarin oranges, and a sweet sesame dressing. Perfect for potlucks, meal prep, and healthy eating, this crunchy salad is ready in just 30 minutes!
🍽️ This salad is a meal prepper’s dream! The sturdy cabbage holds up beautifully throughout the week, and when you keep the dressing separate, you can enjoy fresh, crispy salad for days.
My 2 Best Tips For Making Asian Cabbage Salad
Let the Ginger Shine: Fresh ginger makes a noticeable difference in this dressing compared to ground ginger. Use a microplane grater or the small holes of a box grater to get the finest grate possible. This ensures the ginger distributes evenly and doesn’t create any unpleasant chunks.
Prep Ahead: This salad is a meal prepper’s dream! The sturdy cabbage holds up beautifully throughout the week, and when you keep the dressing separate, you can enjoy fresh, crispy salad for days — just add the dressing when serving. To help keep the salad from getting soggy, I also leave out the cucumber when I prep this salad ahead for future meals.
🩷 Melissa
With its bright colors and refreshing crunch, this Asian cabbage salad is guaranteed to be the star of any potluck, picnic, or gathering.
The combination of sweet mandarin oranges, crunchy almonds, and flavorful sesame dressing appeals to everyone.
You can easily swap ingredients based on what you have on hand – substitute peanuts for almonds, add extra bell peppers if they’re your favorite, or adjust the mandarin oranges to your taste preference.
It adapts perfectly to your family’s preferences and dietary needs!
Asian Cabbage Salad with Mandarin Oranges
Ingredients
Salad Ingredients:
- 8 cups thinly sliced cabbage, about 1 medium head; use green, or a mix of green and red
- 1 cup shredded carrots
- 1 cup diced bell peppers, any color or a mix
- 3/4 cup chopped or slivered almonds, toasted, if desired
- 5 green onions, chopped
- 1 cup chopped cucumber
- 2 cans mandarin oranges, drained, 15 ounces cans
Dressing Ingredients:
- 3 tablespoons honey
- 3 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1/3 cup light oil, such as avocado or canola
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
- 2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger , or 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine the cabbage, carrots, bell peppers, almonds, green onions, cucumber, and mandarin oranges.
- In a small bowl or jar, whisk together the honey, rice vinegar, soy sauce, light oil, sesame oil, ginger, and garlic powder until well combined.
- Pour the dressing over the salad and toss until everything is evenly coated.
- Add salt and pepper to taste and add a tablespoon of sesame seeds if you'd like. Toss to combine.
- Serve right away.
Notes
- If chopping is not your zen/happy place you can buy bagged chopped cabbage and pre-shredded carrots for this recipe, no problem there.
- If you want to make this recipe ahead of time, just get the salad part ready and the dressing ready but keep them separate. Add the dressing just before serving.
- This recipe is great to take to a party or picnic because it bright and colorful and crunchy. Everyone loves it!
- This recipe lends really well to making for meal prep and eating on it all week long. If I am planning on that I will not add the cucumber to the recipe because it get too soft before the other veggies and I keep the dressing separate and just add it as I eat it.
- Two 15-ounce cans is a lot of mandarin oranges, but I love them so much in this recipe. If you don’t love them as much as I do you can drop that down to 1 can if you prefer.
- You can sprinkle the salad with sesame seeds before serving if you like.
- This recipes is really flexible so adjust it to your liking. Add more peppers if they are your favorite and swap the almonds for roasted salted peanut or shelled sunflower seeds if that’s what you have on hand.
Nutrition
How To Make Crunchy Asian Cabbage Salad Recipe
Step 1: Gather the ingredients for this yummy salad! If you want to save time, grab a bag of pre-shredded cabbage and carrot mix. No judgment here!
Step 2: Thinly slice and chop all of the vegetables and mince the ginger. Drain the mandarin oranges.
Step 3: Combine all of the vegetables, ginger, and oranges in a large bowl.
Step 4: Whisk together the dressing ingredients and pour over the salad; mix and serve. Note: If making this dish ahead, keep the dressing separate until ready to serve.
Recipe FAQs
Absolutely! For best results, prepare the salad ingredients and dressing separately, then combine them just before serving. If making for meal prep, omit the cucumber (as it gets soft) and add dressing to individual portions as needed. The salad will stay fresh for up to 5 days in the refrigerator.
Green cabbage is the classic choice, but you can use red cabbage or a mix of both for extra color and visual appeal. Napa cabbage also works wonderfully and provides a slightly more tender texture. The key is to slice it thinly for the best eating experience.
Yes! Fresh mandarin segments, orange segments, or even diced apples work beautifully. If using fresh citrus, you may want to add them just before serving to prevent the salad from becoming too watery. Dried cranberries or raisins also make excellent substitutions.
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Did you make this recipe? Leave a ⭐️ review and share it on Instagram, Facebook, or Pinterest!
This was absolutely delicious. Easy to make and so tasty. My family loved it. I didn’t have any sliced almonds, but it tasted fine w/o them. I didn’t add the sesame seeds. So so good!