Savoy Cabbage Salad
on Feb 18, 2025
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With apples, carrots and red onions, this savoy cabbage salad has a colorful and crisp combination of ingredients. Chopped almonds give it nutty crunchy and quick pickled golden raisins adds bites that are pleasantly tart. Tossed in an apple cider vinaigrette, this fresh fall-winter salad can be a main dish or a side dish for lunch or dinner.
For another cabbage recipe, also try this napa cabbage salad with peanut ginger dressing.
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
If you need another reason to join the cabbage fan club, this salad is it. A vegetable that’s too often underrated, raw cabbage is fantastic for salads. You can think of it as a more interesting option for lettuce. I like roasting it too.
Savoy cabbage gives you a salad mix in a single head. The outer leaves are softer and more tender and frilly. As you get closer to the center, you find the more crunchy leaves. It’s great to have all that variety and texture from a single ingredient.
This cabbage salad has a tasty mix of savory, sweet and pickled flavors. Besides the savoy cabbage base, there are apples, carrots, almonds, cheddar and pickled raisins. They all work beautifully together.
What is Savoy Cabbage?
Round like standard green cabbage and red cabbage, the leaves look different on a head of savoy cabbage. The outer leaves area crinkled, and they are an emerald green color. I like to think of it as storybook cabbage because it looks like a cartoon version of green cabbage. When you see cabbage side-by-side at the grocery or farmer’s market, you will understand.
The reason it is called savoy is because it is named after the region bordering France, Switzerland and Italy in the western Alps. In cooked recipes, savoy holds its texture more than green cabbage does. Besides salads, you often see savoy cabbage stuffed and also used in sauerkraut and soups. Cabbage is best in the winter months. Savoy has a mild nutty flavor. (source)
How To Cut Savory Cabbage
You cut it the same way you do other round varieties like green and red cabbage. The leaves are dense, so you get a lot out of it. To cut savoy cabbage:
- Slice the head in half.
- Cut the halves in half, so you end up with quarters.
- Trim the stems at the bottoms of each section.
- Thinly slice the cabbage perpendicular to the stem.
The Ingredients
This is what you need:
- Savoy cabbage: Choose a small head. The leaves should look fresh and not wilted, but you can pull off the outermost layer leaves before you start cutting it if they are limp.
- Apples: Pink lady or honeycrisp apples are my favorites for salads because they are crisp and a little tart and don’t brown as quickly as other kinds.
- Carrots: I prefer buying a bag of shredded carrots, but you can cut the carrots yourself with the big holes of a box grater or with the shredding disk on your food processor.
- Golden raisins are nice and plump, so they are good choice for quick pickling, better than black raisins. You soak them in apple cider vinegar, honey, a pinch of red pepper flakes and hot water.
- Red onions, thinly sliced, give the salad a crisp accent. Sliced scallions are a good substitute.
- Cheddar is one of the best cheeses to go with apples. Here I choose a crumbly aged white cheddar and thinly slice it with a vegetable peeler.
- Almonds give the salad nutty crunch. You can use toasted walnuts instead.
- Parsley: I always add fresh herbs to salads. Here I go with chopped parsley.
- Apple cider vinaigrette: For the dressing, I whisk minced garlic, whole grain mustard, apple cider vinegar, lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil.
How To Make This Savoy Cabbage Salad Recipe
1. Pickle the raisins. In a small bowl, stir together the vinegar, honey, hot water and red pepper flakes. Then add the raisins and soak them while you make the vinaigrette and assemble the salad. Drain the liquid before adding them to the salad.
2. Make the vinaigrette. Stir the garlic, mustard, salt, pepper, apple cider vinegar, fresh lemon juice and olive oil in a small bowl.
3. Assemble the salad. In a large bowl, combine the cabbage, carrots, apples, onions, almonds, cheddar, parsley and drained raisins.
4. Drizzle the vinaigrette into the salad, tossing to combine.
Serving
This can be a main dish or a side dish salad. If you do want to turn it into a meal on its own, you can add a protein like shredded rotisserie chicken or baked tofu. I also like white beans or chickpeas in the salad to make it more hearty.
The ingredients in the salad would go with entrees with vegetables such as baked butternut squash risotto, roasted brussels sprout orecchiette or roasted broccoli pesto pasta.
Leftovers & Storage
You can save leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge up to 3 days. The cabbage will soften and the apples will brown, but the salad will still taste good. If you know you are going to save some of the salad, only toss the amount you are planning to eat in the vinaigrette, which you should store in a separate jar.
Recipe Tips
- If you can’t find savoy cabbage, you can substitute with napa cabbage or green cabbage. At the grocery all cabbage varieties are often in the same bin, and it can be confusing. Savoy will look dark green compared to regular cabbage, and remember to look for those crinkly leaves.
- You can make the vinaigrette up to 2 days in advance. Store it in a jar in the refrigerator. Let it sit out at room temperature for at least 15 minutes and stir it before you toss it into the salad.
- Use fresh lemon juice. Bottled citrus juice has extra ingredients and preservatives and doesn’t taste as good as juice from an actual lemon.
More Cabbage Recipes
Roasted Red Cabbage
Roasted Green Cabbage with Tahini Sauce
Asian Cabbage Salad
Apple Cabbage Salad
Crispy Tofu Salad
Savoy Cabbage Salad
Ingredients
For raisins
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon honey
- 1 tablespoon hot water
- Pinch of red pepper flakes
- 1/3 cup golden raisins
For vinaigrette
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1 tablespoon whole grain mustard
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 lemon
- 1/4 cup olive oil
For salad
- 1 head savoy cabbage, thinly sliced
- 1/2 cup shredded carrots
- 2 crisp apples (pink lady or honeycrisp), cut into matchsticks
- 1/4 small red onion, thinly sliced
- 1/3 cup chopped almonds
- 1/4 cup very thinly sliced cheddar
- 1 tablespoon chopped parsley
Instructions
- For the raisins, whisk 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar, honey, hot water and red pepper flakes in a small bowl. Add the raisins. Let them soak while you make the vinaigrette and assemble the salad. Drain the liquid before you add the raisins with the rest of the ingredients.
- To make the vinaigrette, whisk the garlic, mustard, salt, pepper, 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar, lemon juice and olive oil in a small bowl.
- Combine the cabbage, carrots, apples, onions, almonds, cheddar, parsley and drained raisins in a large bowl.
- Drizzle the vinaigrette into the salad. Toss to combine.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
