This traditional coleslaw recipe is an easy side dish made with shredded cabbage mix and creamy dressing. A classic summer salad for BBQs!
Cole Slaw is an essential Summer Side Dish for your backyard barbecue! From this classic easy recipe to old fashioned Amish Vinegar Slaw to Copycat KFC and Sweet versions, I’ve got plenty of slaws for you to choose from!
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Sabrina’s Easy Cole Slaw Recipe
This easy and delicious coleslaw comes together in just 5 minutes with the perfect homemade dressing. The hardest part is waiting for it to chill for a few hours before you can dive in for a crisp tangy bite! It is a great make-ahead dish because it gets even better the next day.
Of course, slaw is a classic barbecue side dish. The cool, creaminess of dressing and crunch of the veggies go perfectly with smoky meat hot off the grill. And who can resist a saucy pulled pork sandwich piled high with fresh coleslaw?!
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Key Ingredients
- Cabbage: I used a pre-shredded cabbage mix since this is supposed to be an easy recipe! You can make your own using green cabbage, purple cabbage, and carrots. See below for my instructions on how to do this.
- Mayonnaise: This recipe calls for regular mayo for extra creaminess. You can use a lighter version or vegan mayo if you prefer.
- Vinegar: The tangy, strong white vinegar cuts through the rich mayo and helps soften the veggies as they sit overnight.
- Sugar: The sugar adds some balance and helps tone down the acidic flavors with the lemon and vinegar.
- Lemon Juice: Some fresh lemon juice also helps cut the richness of the mayo and adds a bold freshness to the dressing.
Step by Step Guide
Time needed: 2 hours and 5 minutes
- Sauce
Combine the mayonnaise, sugar, lemon juice, white vinegar, salt, and pepper in a large mixing bowl. Whisk together until it’s a smooth sauce.
- Combine
Add the pre-shredded coleslaw mix, or your homemade cabbage mix, to the dressing. Toss well until it’s completely coated.
- Chill
For the best flavor and to soften the cabbage, you want to chill the slaw in the fridge for at least 2 hours.
Recipe Card
Ingredients
- 14 ounce coleslaw mix with red cabbage and carrots*
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon white vinegar
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
Instructions
- Add the mayonnaise, sugar, lemon juice, white vinegar, salt, and pepper to a large mixing bowl and whisk together until fully combined.
- Add in the coleslaw mix and stir well to combine.
- Refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
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Chef’s Note: Playing with Flavor
The nice thing about a simple recipe like my slaw dressing is that it makes a great base to play with flavor using your spice cabinet. You can keep it simple with celery salt, white pepper or garlic powder. Or get bold and creative with curry powder, cumin, tarragon, or turmeric. I like to spoon a little dressing out into a small dish, add a tiny dash of spices, mix and taste. Once I have the flavors i’m looking for, I add the spices in ¼ or ½ teaspoon amounts to the actual dressing. This way I don’t risk wasting my whole dressing with the wrong seasoning combo.
Can Cole Slaw be Made Ahead of Time?
The beautiful thing with Cole Slaw is that you can make it in advance! While it is still really yummy as soon as it is mixed together, making your Cole Slaw a day or two earlier and keeping it in the fridge will help bring all the flavors together and help them get into the cabbage mixture. Make sure it is sealed in an airtight container.
How to Store
- Serve: For best results, make sure to refrigerate at least 4 hours before serving, serve chilled, and don’t leave it out longer than 2 hours.
- Store: Cole Slaw can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 1 week. If it starts to break down, add more coleslaw mix to keep it fresh longer.
- Freeze: Coleslaw doesn’t freeze well, so just throw it out and make a fresh batch when needed.
Homemade Shredded Cabbage Mixture
If you want to use your own mix for the coleslaw, follow these instructions.
- Green Cabbage: Cut up a full head of green cabbage into 4 large quarters using a sharp chef’s knife. Taking care, thinly slice each of the quartered cabbage pieces. Discard the thick root part. One head of cabbage should make about 8 cups of shredded cabbage.
- Red Cabbage: Next, shred enough red cabbage to make 1 cup, about a 1/4th of a cabbage head. You don’t want to use too much red cabbage or it will turn your slaw purple.
- Carrots: Lastly, shred 4 carrots into short, thin strips. You can use a grater, the julienne setting on your kitchen mandolin or a food processor with a shredding blade.
Frequent Questions
It is really up to you! I like to grab a pre-shredded bag for convenience, especially when it’s on sale. But chopping it up fresh isn’t that hard since it’s just cabbage and shredded carrots.
While this recipe takes only five minutes to put together, you want to let it chill so that the dressing can soften the crunch of the cabbage and really absorb the flavors. I recommend 2-4 hours, or overnight if you have the time.
Cole Slaw is a dish that comes from the Netherlands. Its first presentation showed up in a cookbook there in 1770.
Making coleslaw from scratch can be as easy as pouring and mixing! At the most, you may have to do some chopping if you don’t buy a bagged mix. All the ingredients are pantry staples which means you’ll likely have them already at home! If not, you can easily find the ingredients in your local grocery store.
Variations and Substitutions
- Fresh Herbs: Adding a few teaspoons of fresh dill, chives, or parsley will give your slaw a tasty herby kick! For a bold flavor, try finely diced green onion or grated white onion.
- Mustard: Adding a bit of mustard seeds or a tablespoon or two of Dijon mustard to the mix really adds a wonderful depth of flavor.
- Mayo vs Miracle Whip: Mayo is really creamy and rich while Miracle Whip is a bit sweeter in flavor. It really comes down to preference on this one!
- Vinegar: Try making your slaw apple cider vinegar or pickle juice instead of the white vinegar for a tangy flavor with a twist!
Related Recipes
More Delicious Homemade Coleslaw Recipes!
Photos used in a previous version of this post:
Delicious and easy. Perfect side dish for those cookouts.
Added about 1/2 tsp of celery seed. Used 2 Tblsp of lemon juice. Very good!
Great recipe as written! The flavor is perfect! In an effort to try and make this more healthy, I used 2T Greek yogurt and 1T mayo. I also used Rice vinegar in place of the regular vinegar, and I reduced the sugar. This is such a good recipe as written or if you decide to tweak it.
Thanks Alice!
Very good slaw dressing! I made it and we are eating it for dinner tonight.
This is by far the best Cole slaw recipe ever. I HATED come slaw until this recipe
Super fast to make and tastes good immediately after the ingredients are combined.
I used half vinegar and half pickle juice and it was good!
This coleslaw recipe was great! And super easy to make and tasted amazing. Definitely better and cheaper than store bought coleslaw. The only change I would make is that I wouldn’t add the full 2 Tbsp of sugar cause it was a little on the sweet side for me. I ended up adding more salt and some lemon juice to get the taste where I wanted it. For next time I might just start with 1 Tbsp of sugar and then see how I like the taste from there and add more if needed. But overall still a really tasty recipe. Thank you for sharing.
You’re welcome!
Easy and delicious ?
Definitely am making this again
Great recipe and easy to make. I have made it about three times now and tried a few things different or added ingredients. I tried apple cider vinegar and adding fresh chives, I like that little onion taste and cider vinegar just changes the flavor a little. And I tried about 1/2 teaspoon celery seeds.
Like I said Great Recipe and a very good base to start off from.
Happy on your coleslaw. recipe. Easy plus I hate to throw away leftover cabbage, so making coleslaw is great to use up the cabbage. What’s best is all ingredients are staple at home and don’t have to buy items I may not use later. I do use rice and regular vinegar but more partial toward rice , more sweeter. What great husband gave ? ? thumbs up
Just made this for dinner. Very simple to make and very good!!
I know your original post was from 2018 but I just made this today and it is really delicious! Definitely a keeper! ?
I don’t play around with coleslaw much and typically make it the way my mom did when I was growing up and still does. I saw this recipe and thought I’d give it a try. Boy am I glad I did. It is delicious and was a hit at a party. I went to this weekend where we had pork barbecue sandwiches and a mashed potato bar, along with the coleslaw. I did tweak it a little and I ended up timesing everything by 8 to make enough for a large crowd. Here’s what I put in mine for a recipe for 8 servings:
1-16 ounce bag coleslaw mix with red cabbage and carrots
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons Miracle Whip
2 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
So glad you enjoyed the recipe. Not sure if you know this already but our recipes allow for you to hover over the “Number” of servings after the Yield: field to change the recipe to serve however many people you are feeding! Simply slide the bar to decrease or increase the number of servings and the recipe will automatically reflect the changes of servings you selected!
Wow, that would help a lot. I need to make cole slaw for a large crowd. However, I cannot find the “Yield” field. Can you help? Thanks!
Yield is at the top of the recipe card! Enjoy!
This is the best and easiest recipe ever! I did use apple cider vinegar instead of white
This was really easy and tasted great
Can I add pineapple to this recipe?
It sounds wonderful!
great idea
I’m not a cole slaw lover since I hate mayo but this is so good I can even eat it! My family loves it and the lemon cuts the flavor of the mayo. Just really a great recipe.
Yay! Glad your family enjoyed it.
Never could find a recipe I liked until this one.
Excellent recipe ! I love the flavour, good instructions and easy to do.
I tried this recipe this morning and I am going to Barbacue a turkey and Deer ? sausage for this afternoon. I am putting Cole slaw in refrigerator. I don’t like Mayonnaise so I used Miracle Whip Salad dressing and I didn’t have white distilled Vinegar so I used Apple Cider Vinegar
I usually don’t like most coleslaw’s so I was just making it like why not try it. I didn’t have lemons so I used 2 limes so they didn’t go to waste, added a bit more salt and it was so good! Made me want to eat it all. I did not shred the cabbage just bought some coleslaw bag. Would make again ??! Gonna have it tomorrow with pulled pork sandwiches ???? bye!
Very tasty and so easy!! Also not many ingredients. This is my new go to for coleslaw!
Yum! The addition of lemon juice adds dimension, usually I just use vinegar, never again!
Loved this! Simple but so tasty!
Great Recipe! Easy to make and taste way better then any jar. My husband’s new favorite coleslaw recipe.
Am a big fan of coleslaw homemade like the recipe u have shown us
Its too cool
Thx a lot
I made your coleslaw with fresh cabbage and carrots from my garden. Refrigerated for 4 hours. Served with barbecued chicken. The coleslaw was a hit. Thankfully I doubled the recipe.
This is the best recipe. My husband would not eat coleslaw until he tried this recipe.
I love your recipes looking forward to trying it. I am guessing it’s bottled lemon juice?
I use fresh but bottled is just fine!
Simply perfect!
I made this a few times recently, it’s really tasty. Added a grated apple, some dijon mustard and garlic pepper to taste.
If I omit the vinegar in this recipe should I increase the lemon juice by that much ?
Perfect coke slaw
Delicious!
Couldn’t find my moms recipe but this one was spot on
I substituted sugar with 1 1/2 packets of zing, and instead of kosher salt I added celery salt.
replaced the Vinegar with pickle juice and halfed the sugar amount using dark brown sugar, yum.
Thanks for posting your comment here about subbing dill pickle juice & dark brown sugar. I was reading the comments to see what recommendations were suggested to sub for the white vinegar because II’m running too low on it before next shopping trip to buy more. You have a GREAT solution. I can’t recall what happened when I made a similar recipe with acv (which I have more of in the pantry), but it doesn’t matter now. I’ll follow your resolution to my dilemma.
I ‘ve been making this recipe since it was published. I love this recipe. Today, I’m going to try it with Broccoli slaw.
It came out just as good as regular coleslaw!
What kind of Mayo! Hellman’s? Or could I use miracle whip?
this is perfect!!!!!! My Mom always made her own dressing for cole slaw & it was great. Finally I found the one that tastes just like what she made…….thanks so much….have been buying bottled stuff that never pleases me.
Super easy and Super delicious! Can’t buy a better coleslaw from the deli. We make it 2 times a week at least.
Easy recipe and it’s tastes good ! I made a batch and will have with pork chops and I can eat it alone as a salad.
Thanks ?
Easy, quick and delicious! Tonight with bbq pulled pork sandwiches and left~overs tomorrow with cheeseburgers and fries! Always perfect!
This was a huge hit at my house. I made this to top off my homemade pulled pork sliders with. I’m thrilled with the way the slaw pulled it all together. YUM! It’s definitely on my list for making in the future and can’t wait to make it for a party.
Great quick recipe. Kept the dressing in a glass jar and mixed it with the cabbage just before serving. Coleslaw stays crisp and it keeps a bit longer this way. Thanks for the recipe.
I’ve been making this recipe since it was published. I love this recipe. Today, I’m going to try it with Broccoli slaw.
I started using this recipe a few years ago. I’ve never wanted to look for another one! This has the perfect balance of everything. I don’t like celery in coleslaw but I DO like the flavor. After making this a few times as is, I decided to add celery seeds. IF you’ve never cooked with celery seeds, please note that a little goes a long way…my first batch using it was overpowering.
Also, my brother won’t eat coleslaw anywhere else cause it’s not as good as ‘mine’! Glad I found this recipe!
Awesome every time I make it.
When making this can I use Miracle Whip instead of true Mayo it’s what we have in the fridge?
that’s how my mom always made it, just reduce any vinegar by the taste test. Also, you can add a small amt of grey Poupon.
Great easy Cole slaw recipe.
I had this at a friends house. It is the best I ever tasted.
Easy to follow and put together. I use apple cider vinegar instead of plain while vinegar. Salad tastes great! This is my go to cole slaw recipe! Thanks.
I use apple cider vinegar too – love it! No sugar for us (diabetic) but everything else the same. My go-to recipe for life!
Hello Sabrina, I’ve been making your cole slaw recipe for several years now, every time I make cole slaw I go right to yours, it’s easy and taste very good my family and friends enjoy it. Thank you for all your great recipes.
Double the sauce if you like it saucy. Also substituted celery salt for salt, lime for lemon (what I had), and added teaspoon of dijon mustard. Turned out great!