Are you looking for the perfect picnic salad to bring to a potluck?
Look no more, this is it. The napa cabbage picnic salad has been a favorite of my friends and neighbors for years. It’s one of the most requested potluck salads I’ve ever made.
My neighbor Pat first introduced it to me, followed by my friend Chigiy. The original recipe comes from Sunset magazine (July 2004) and serves a crowd.
We’ve scaled the recipe back for a regular family and friends meal, but you can easily scale it up for a large picnic.
Napa cabbage, while not as sturdy as regular cabbage, is much more resilient than lettuce, so it lends itself well to picnic salads that have to sit around for a while.
This salad has Chinese napa cabbage, radishes, snow peas, toasted slivered almonds, and a sweet sesame ginger mayo dressing.
Much of it can be made ahead, and then assembled when you are ready to serve. Enjoy!
Napa Cabbage Picnic Salad Recipe
PrintThe dressing recipe makes a little more than you will likely need. So, use about 1/2 of it to start, and add more to taste when you dress the salad.
This salad recipes scales easily for a potluck or picnic.
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup slivered almonds
- 4 cups (1/2 lb) coarsely shredded napa cabbage
- 6 ounces snow peas, sliced into half-inch slices on the diagonal
- 2/3 cup thinly sliced radishes
- 2/3 cup thinly sliced green onions (including greens)
- 2/3 cup lightly packed chopped cilantro
Dressing ingredients
- 1 Tbsp plus 1 1/2 teaspoons rice vinegar (seasoned or unseasoned)
- 1 Tbsp sugar
- 1 Tbsp soy sauce
- 1/2 clove peeled and minced garlic (about 1/2 teaspoon)
- 1/4 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/8 teaspoon cayenne powder
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
Method
1 Toast the almond slivers in stick-free or cast-iron skillet on medium high, stirring frequently until browned. Set aside.
2 Combine cabbage, snow peas, radishes, green onions, cilantro in a large bowl. Can make this step a day or two ahead.
3 In a separate bowl, whisk together the rice vinegar, sugar, soy sauce, garlic, sesame oil, ginger, and cayenne until sugar has dissolved. Whisk in the mayonnaise.
4 When ready to serve, gently combine the dressing and almonds with the cabbage mixture.
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Elise Bauer is the founder of Simply Recipes. Elise launched Simply Recipes in 2003 as a way to keep track of her family's recipes, and along the way grew it into one of the most popular cooking websites in the world. Elise is dedicated to helping home cooks be successful in the kitchen. Elise is a graduate of Stanford University, and lives in Sacramento, California.
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I have made this salad (slaw) dozens of times now and it is ALWAYS a hit at every gathering. The dressing is amazing and along with the variety of crisp fresh vegetables and crunchy nuts, it’s super satisfying. I eat low carb and this is in my circulation of monthly recipes. I often make a smaller portion using store-bought (yikes) slaw mix in place of the napa cabbage (a whole cabbage yields a ton!) and use it as the base of a bowl with stir-fried protein on top. Works great with Korean beef, teriyaki chicken, or garlic shrimp.
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I LOVE THIS DRESSING! I made this salad to go with brisket last night and didn’t have peas so I used broccoli instead. The whole thing was DELISH especially the dressing. I will definitely make this again. Thanks Elise!
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The dressing is drinkable. Sooo good. This recipe circulates among my friends at various get togethers and I’m always happy to see it.
This has been our go-to summer salad recipe for years. It’s easy to riff on, leave things out your don’t have, add what you do. For anyone worried about sugar, we’ve made it with and without and it’s delicious either way.
Fantastic! I grow so much of this recipe for market, combined it as you laid it out- Wow!!! Thank you so much.