This fresh crunchy rainbow slaw is the perfect vegan alternative to mainstream slaw. It is a great side dish to a variety of meals, I love it! It has a great balance of saltiness from the sauce and bitter tastes from the cabbage and tahini, with a refreshing kick from the lemon juice. I have recently been obsessed with this slaw and have it alongside such a range of my home-cooked dishes! It genuinely takes about 5 minutes, creates minimal mess and is so healthy!
Cabbage is one of the low FODMAP approved vegetables. Although I find it completely fine to digest, I know that raw veggies can be quite harsh and disruptive to some people’s IBS. If this is the case, you are more than welcome to steam up your chopped cabbage and grated carrot before adding the sauce. This way, it helps your digestion to break down the rainbow slaw better! You will lose some of the crunch, but it is definitely still just as delicious!
As you can see, I have chopped my rainbow slaw quite thick, and I haven’t chopped through the layers. You are more than welcome to continue chopping the cabbage into more bite-sized lengths. I was not too concerned about this; I don’t mind twizzling my rainbow slaw around my fork before taking a bite! I also encourage you to use a peeler to chop the cabbage if you want really thin strips. This will allow the rainbow slaw to have a saucier texture since there is more surface area for the tahini dressing to coat.
Because it is so quick to make, and you can make many portions of rainbow slaw with a single cabbage. I recommend you make this in bulk, so that you can enjoy your rainbow slaw throughout the week!
Some meal ideas you could add your rainbow slaw to:
- With burgers
- Incorporated into your salad (I sometimes add this to my sweet potato gnocchi salad or my tofu and quinoa salad)
- Pork chops
- Alongside my butterfly fried chicken
- Served with a loaded sandwich
- As a crunchy side with a pulled pork bun
- With ribs
- In a wrap
This dressing is one of my favourites. I love the balance of bitter, sour and saltiness. It combines so well with the freshly chopped vegetables. Whilst it is similar to my lemon tahini salad dressing, there are a few alterations to the recipe. This helps the sauce to coat the cabbages and carrot better than a standard salad dressing would. With the addition of olive oil (which you could sub out for toasted sesame oil or extra virgin olive oil), it helps to keep the sauce thick enough to cling to the rainbow slaw components. But it keeps the sauce runny enough to easily stir and integrate into the slaw.
Often, I prep this rainbow slaw at lunch so that I can leave it aside in time for dinner. It is very easy to leave this covered, on the countertop for a few hours, to save you from having to make this alongside your main dish. Alternatively, you can pop this into the fridge to keep it nice and crisp to serve alongside your dinner. Using this as meal prep also allows the veggies to absorb some of that delicious tahini sauce, giving your rainbow slaw that extra bit of flavour. I would just recommend giving your slaw another quick toss just before serving it to redistribute the sauce.
Ingredients: (serves 2)
Slaw components:
- 2 cups chopped red cabbage
- 2 cups chopped white cabbage
- 1 medium to large carrot
Sauce components:
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1/2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp water (to thin the sauce)
- Pepper (optional)
Method:
Step 1: peel and grate the carrot. Thinly slice the cabbages to get ribbons.
Step 2: put your prepared veggies into a big bowl.
Step 3: in a small bowl, mix your sauce ingredients until they have been fully combined (it may take a little bit of time for the tahini to fully incorporate.
Step 4: add your sauce to the bowl and mix until all the chopped and grated veggies are fully coated.
You can store your rainbow slaw in the fridge for up to 4 days before it starts to look a little sad. Just make sure to keep it in an air-tight container to help it stay fresh.
Take pictures of your rainbow slaw and send them over to my Instagram page TheLazyLowFODMAP. Alternatively, tag me in your posts so that I see them!
