This warm apple and cabbage salad is packed with flavor. It also comes together in about 20 minutes! Jump to the Warm Apple Cabbage Salad Recipe or read on to see our tips for making it.
How to Make Warm Apple and Cabbage Salad
Most often, we see salads that are cool and crisp — take this apple and celery salad, for example. It’s packed with crisp apples, crunchy celery, and fennel. It’s delicious, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for a warm salad in our lives every once in a while!
For this warm apple salad, we lightly cook apples and cabbage with some garlic and celery. The cabbage wilts ever so slightly, but retains a bit of crunch. We love cooked cabbage around here, have you seen our lemon garlic sautéed cabbage or this fried cabbage with bacon?
When the apples and cabbage are slightly wilted, we take them off of the heat and toss them with a simple dressing made with apple cider vinegar and Dijon mustard.
You could stop there, but to add a bit more texture and crunch, we love to add a handful of pecans, dried cranberries, and feta cheese.
More Simple Salads
- Seriously Good Coleslaw — My favorite homemade coleslaw recipe with the most delicious creamy dressing.
- Superfood Quinoa Salad — Our ultra-flavorful and satisfying quinoa salad is packed with superfoods. It’s vegan, easy to make, and tastes incredible.
- Black Bean and Quinoa Salad — Thanks to lots of vegetables and quinoa, this easy black bean salad is ultra satisfying, hearty, and absolutely delicious.
- Easy Green Bean Salad with Crispy Shallots — This flavorful, crunchy cold green bean salad is one of our favorite ways to enjoy green beans.
- Simple Herb Potato Salad — This delicious and easy potato salad recipe is mayonnaise free and has lots of fresh herbs.
Recipe updated, originally posted November 2011. Since posting this in 2011, we have tweaked the recipe to be more clear. – Adam and Joanne
Warm Apple Cabbage Salad with Pecans
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We just love this warm red cabbage and apple salad with dried cranberries, pecans and feta cheese. It’s versatile, too – you can add what you love. Instead of pecans, try walnuts or hazelnuts. Or instead of the cranberries – dried cherries, golden raisins and dried blueberries are wonderful.
You Will Need
Salad2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup thinly sliced celery hearts (3 to 4 stalks)
4 cups thinly sliced red cabbage (1 small head)
1 garlic clove, minced
1 apple, cored and sliced into 1/4 inch matchsticks
1/4 cup dried fruit like cranberries, cherries, apricots or raisins
1/4 cup toasted nuts like pecan halves, walnuts or pistachios
1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
Salt and fresh ground black pepper
Cider Dressing1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon pure honey
Salt and fresh ground black pepper
Directions
- Wilt Cabbage
1Heat the oil in a large skillet over moderately high heat. Add the celery and cook until starting to soften, about 2 minutes. Stir in the cabbage, garlic and 1/4 teaspoon of salt then cook for about 1 minute. Add the apple and cook for 2 to 3 minutes or until softened, but not mushy.
- Make Salad
1While the vegetables cook, make the dressing. In the bottom of a serving bowl, whisk the mustard, apple cider vinegar, olive oil and honey together. Season with salt and fresh ground black pepper. Add the cabbage, apple and celery mixture then toss to coat.
2Mix in dried fruit, nuts and cheese. Serve warm.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
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Delight to have warm apple cabbage slaw..now a family fav.
your recipes look amazing. cant wait to try them. thankyou
This has turned into a regular at our house. First time I made it I had really small green and red cabbages from my CSA. So I used both the green and red and it still came out great. Since then I have made it many times with only green cabbage. I cook the cabbage a little longer since I like it more tender. I don’t use the celery since I don’t feel it’s necessary. I haven’t used the feta, only because I haven’t had it at home when I’ve made this but really want to try it with feta or chèvre. The dressing, cranberries and apples really make this dish. Not to mention it’s really simple to make! Love it!
Joanne – I made a completely raw version of this salad (toasted the nuts) for Father’s Day lunch yesterday, as a side with grilled turkey sausages. It was delicious. Super Techlet took some home for work this week. I’m eating it as a lunch today. I will be making the warm version this fall, as the weather cools. Also, my Michigander sister made your rib recipe for her man for Father’s Day. Absolutely divine, she said. Cheers!
Just made the warm cabbage and apple salad to accompany my roasted chicken and roasted garlic mashed potatoes…yum! I keep taking hits off it! Also…kudos to your Nutella bread pudding and squash soup—keep the GREAT recipes comin! We can’t get enough!!!
Awesome — You are making us hungry with all that talk about garlic mashed potatoes! So happy you enjoyed the recipe, Lora!
look. at. that. omg.
It’s dishes like this that make me so happy for fall! Gorgeous salad and perfect combo of ingredients!