Easy Sweet Red Cabbage Salad With Mayonnaise is a simple 3-ingredient Israeli style deli salad. Just mix and chill!
Easy Sweet Red Cabbage Salad With Mayonnaise is a delicious side salad found in Jewish delis.
It’s great as a side to a wide variety of dishes and costs so much less to make at home!
Want to try cole slaw and other deli salads? Try:
- Really Easy Sweet Deli Cole Slaw
- Easy Deli Style Egg Salad
- Easy Deli Tuna Salad
- Easy Deli Tuna and Egg Salad
- Really Easy Olivier Salad
- Easy Basic Potato Salad
- Really Easy Broccoli Salad
A little of my cooking background
I really wanted to title this blog “If I can make it, anyone can”, because – honestly – if I can make it, anyone can.
I never really liked cooking and when I was single, a meal for me meant grilled cheese, eggs, tuna, or something else that didn’t require effort or time.
When my kids were young, I was still able to get away with preparing only a small variety of easy meals, but the older they got, the more dishes I learned to make at their request.
Still, I insisted on keeping it simple.
Honestly, I never understood why some cooks unnecessarily complicate meals. I have seen recipes that have several ingredients that don’t really seem to add much, if anything, to the dish. So, why bother?
It has always been important to me that whoever eats at my table will have plenty to enjoy and that includes my kids (I never agreed with the “You will eat what is served or you won’t eat” ideology) and, because I keep it simple, I can prepare a variety of dishes in a relatively short period of time.
I have a philosophy regarding being a great cook: Prepare food according to the tastes of those who will be eating it and they will love your cooking!
As far as I am concerned, start with the basic ingredients that make the dish what it is, adapt according to taste, and voila! you are an amazing cook!
The bottom line is that while there are certainly delicate recipes out there for specialty dishes, making delicious meals doesn’t have to be complicated or time consuming. It’s not difficult to impress – just make sure it tastes good.
While some of the recipes on my blog are more time-consuming than others, they are all tried and true easy-shmeezy!
Of course, one always has to consider the conditions under which they cook. Weather (humidity, heat, cold), different types of ovens, different quality of pots, etc. – all of which can affect your cooking and baking.
Nevertheless, as I said, if I can do it, anyone can!
A little about Israeli cuisine
Some people complain about cultural appropriation in cuisine when food from one country is attributed to another country.
However, national cuisine in itself is often a mingling of food from of a variety of cultures, often due to a change of ruling countries and a shifting of borders.
Turkish cuisine, for example, goes back to the Ottoman Empire and was a combination of several cultures under Ottoman rule.
When people move from country to country, they will take their cultures with them and their decendents may adapt their traditional cuisine with that of their new home and, if they don’t, others might.
Chinese food in US restaurants is quite often not really authentic Chinese, but American Chinese.
Americans have created a whole variety of types and styles of pizza and pineapple pizza was apparently created in Canada by a Greek immigrant. Yet, everyone still calls them all “pizza”, which originated in Italy.
Spaghetti is thought to be an Italian food, but many historians believe that it was brought back to Italy from China by Marco Polo.
Apparently, battered fried fish was from the Portuguese Jewish community as a sabbath food and ended up in England via Holland during the Spanish Inquisition, yet everyone attributes the food to the British.
…and don’t get me started on Hummus.
When one lives in a melting pot, such as the US or Israel, it is just unrealistic to expect that food from a particular culture won’t mingle with that of other cultures.
That being said, “Israeli cuisine” is basically Middle Eastern (as opposed to Eastern European food) that was brought to Israel by Jews when they fled or were expelled from Muslim countries and moved to Israel mostly after the declaration of the State of Israel (collectively known as Mizrahi Jews).
Recipes were passed from generation to generation and, although decades have passed, the foods are still known by the culture they came from and everyone seems to have their own way of making them.
That said, there are many variations of pretty much any “Israeli” recipe, because of background, custom, or even just taste. When choosing a recipe, one has to know what actually constitutes a main ingredient – what makes the dish what it is – and what is left up to individual taste.
I personally find it very arrogant and quite irritating when a blogger(not naming names) will put “authentic” in the title of an “Israeli” recipe, as if all the rest are mere imitations. What’s worse, is when that blogger makes the recipe with her own twist and then calls it authentic!
Adding more or less of a spice or adding a spice that is not in the recipe, does not make it less authentic, but calling it “authentic” and then adding unnecessary extra ingredients above and beyond what needs to be there, is misleading.
For example, “authentic” Israeli salad (what Israelis call Israeli salad) is diced tomatoes and cucumbers. Sometimes, they will add some oil salt and pepper, but THAT’S IT. Anything else does not have to be there, but if you leave out the cucumbers or the tomatoes, you no longer have an “Israeli salad”.
So, find the recipes you like with the ingredients you prefer, add your own twists, and בתאבון (literally translated, “with appetite”) !
A little about red cabbage
While this vegetable is called “red” it is is mostly found in more of a purple color. It will change its color according to the PH value of the soil it grows in; in acidic soil, it will be more reddish and in more neutral soil, it will be more purple.
It is used both raw and cooked, depending on the recipe. It can be used raw with mayonnaise (as in this recipe) or with lemon juice or vinegar for a salad or coleslaw. It can also be pickled and made into sauerkraut. Prepared properly in can compliment a variety of dishes.
It is believed that red cabbage was first brought to Europe by the Celtics and was spread throughout Europe by the Romans. At first it was mainly used by peasants for themselves and their livestock and only began to appear in the food of the wealthy sometime in the 1700s.
Red cabbage (also described as purple cabbage) has a high content of both vitamin C and vitamin K and other health benefits.
So, go and whip up some Easy Sweet Red Cabbage Salad With Mayonnaise and enjoy!
Easy Sweet Red Cabbage Salad With Mayonnaise
Easy to make Israeli style sweet red cabbage salad with mayonnaise.
Ingredients
- 4 cups shredded red cabbage
- 1/4 cup mayonnaise (or as desired)
- 1- 2 tablespoons white granulated sugar (or to taste)*
Instructions
- Mix all ingredients together in a large mixing bowl.
- Refrigerate for 1/2-1 one hour to let the sugars release.
Notes
*While sitting, the juices from the cabbage and carrots will combine with the sugar and create a sweet dressing and will taste sweeter than when originally mixed, so don't overdue the sugar.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
6Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 108Total Fat: 7gSaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 6gCholesterol: 4mgSodium: 86mgCarbohydrates: 11gFiber: 3gSugar: 8gProtein: 2g