This summer serve Asian Coleslaw with Peanut Dressing beside any plain grilled meat or fish, as part of a picnic or with burgers. Coleslaw is a classic summer salad and gluten free cooks can mess with the classics like anyone else. The addition of cilantro and salted peanuts along with a peanuty-ginger dressing gives this coleslaw a refreshing Asian twist.

A big bowl of Asian Coleslaw with Peanut Dressing.

Big Bowl Salads

I call this Asian Coleslaw a big bowl salad. It’s the kind of salad that’s too big to make for an everyday meal yet when you half the recipe it seems like too much effort for a small salad. You can make short cuts, omitting ingredients you don’t have or don’t like, but then it’s just okay. To take a big bowl salad to a party it’s got to be amazing!

I think everyone needs a few big bowl salads in their recipe collection, even if you only make them all once a year. I think that is part of what makes these salads memorable.

One tip I’ll share is to potion a few smaller containers of your salad as soon as you make it. I do this to label it gluten free for a large party but you can also do this and give some salad to a friend or neighbour. In my experience you must do this right away because in three or four days it’s just going to be a good idea that didn’t happen.

PIN for later...

A colourful Asian Coleslaw with a Peanut Dressing.

Coleslaw Mix vs Cabbage

A store bought coleslaw mix is almost white with just enough carrot and purple cabbage that you can tell it’s supposed to be coleslaw. It also has a food label. Some days that’s good enough and I add extra shredded carrot to perk it up. For this post I wanted all the colours of the rainbow so I bought whole cabbage and three different colours of peppers. I didn’t need to read any labels but I did need to think about how I’d use up the leftover produce.

Rotating fresh produce in your kitchen is a skill that most of us can improve on. The “stay at home” recommendation during the pandemic has caused me to be more thoughtful about grocery shopping. I think about buying vegetables that last longer in the fridge like cabbage and carrots, and what recipes I can make to use up ingredients like bean sprouts that won’t last long. I even bought frozen, shelled edamame beans just for a change.

Organize For Success

Any little step done in advance most often makes a recipe seem easier on the day you make it. Create a habit of thinking like that and see what works for you.

make the salad dressing one or two days in advance (and label it!)
shred a few carrots for this recipe and to use in other salads
cook up more edamame beans than you'll need and toss the extra into a cold salad or a vegetable stir-fry

Equipment

To make a big bowl salad with a homemade dressing you need a beautiful big bowl and maybe some Mason jars for the dressing.

All sizes of Mason jars and I love my Dymo label maker (but it's still up to me to make that label and get it on the jar).
A beautiful wooden salad bowl, a classic glass bowl with wavy edge or a clear, acrylic bowls for outdoor parties.

Big bowl salads like this Asian Coleslaw can be made all year long. If you’re a salad person then make a point of looking for new salads to add to your list and over time you’ll have the kind of recipe collection everyone else just wishes they had.

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