This Asian slaw recipe is filled with crunchy veggies, fresh herbs, and a creamy sesame dressing. It's a delicious side dish or meal prep lunch!
This Asian slaw recipe is a fresh twist on coleslaw, featuring some of my favorite Asian flavors. It starts with a base of crunchy cabbage, then I toss in charred peppers, green onions, and herbs like Thai basil and cilantro for unexpected depth. Toasted seeds add crunch, a sliced peach adds sweetness, and a creamy sesame miso dressing ties the whole thing together.
This Asian slaw would be a perfect side dish for your next summer BBQ or cookout (get ready for everyone to ask for the recipe!). I also love it as a meal prep lunch. The hearty cabbage holds up well in the fridge for a few days—even with the dressing—so it’s perfect for making ahead for a healthy midday meal.
Asian Slaw Ingredients
This Asian slaw recipe is chock-full of fresh ingredients! Here’s what you’ll need to make it:
- Crunchy green and red cabbage – Instead of buying a packaged coleslaw mix, I shred my own cabbage for this recipe. Using a mix of red and green cabbage makes it extra pretty, but it tastes delicious with just one variety too.
- Charred peppers – I like a mix of Anaheim and banana peppers, but red bell pepper and poblano are good options too. They add heat, extra color, and smoky flavor. I also add raw Thai chiles for a little heat.
- Fresh cilantro, mint, and basil – If you ask me, no summer salad is complete without herbs. This mix fills the slaw with fresh, surprising flavor, but if you don’t have all these herbs, that’s ok! Just one or two herbs would add plenty of flavor.
- Green onions – For savory, onion-y flavor.
- Peaches – They add a juicy, sweet contrast to the other savory, crisp elements.
- Toasted sesame seeds, pepitas, and/or peanuts – For crunchy texture and toasty flavor!
Find the complete recipe with measurements below.
My Asian Slaw Dressing
A creamy sesame miso dressing ties this slaw together! The dressing ingredients include peanut butter or cashew butter, lime juice, toasted sesame oil, miso, and fresh ginger, so it’s creamy, tangy, and nutty. It’s so delicious that you might want to make extra sauce to have on hand for salads and grain bowls throughout the week!
How to Make Asian Slaw
This Asian slaw recipe comes together in three simple steps:
- Start by making the Asian dressing. In a small bowl, whisk together the cashew or peanut butter, miso, lime juice, sesame oil, and ginger. Add water, 1 tablespoon at a time, as needed to reach a drizzleable consistency. Set aside.
- Next, char the peppers. I like to do this in a dry cast-iron skillet on the stovetop. Cook the peppers whole, rotating them as they char, until charred on all sides. When they’re cool enough to handle, stem and seed them and slice them into thin strips.
- Assemble the slaw by tossing together the cabbage, peppers, scallions, herbs, Thai chiles, and most of the dressing. Season to taste, adding more dressing as desired. Add the toasted nuts and seeds and peaches, lightly toss, and serve.
That’s it!
What to Serve with Asian Slaw
With its fresh, tangy, umami flavor, this Asian slaw is a show-stopping cookout side dish. Serve it with black bean burgers, veggie burgers, or whatever you’re grilling!
It’s also a great side dish for Asian-inspired meals like this banh mi sandwich and crispy sesame tofu.
I like this recipe for lunch too. I often top it with baked tofu or tempeh to make it a meal!
How to Store and Make Ahead
This Asian slaw recipe keeps well in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
If you’re making it ahead, wait to add the fresh herbs, peaches, and toasted nuts and seeds until just before you eat. That way, the herbs will stay vibrant, the nuts will retain their crunch, and the peaches won’t brown.
More Favorite Salad Recipes
If you love this Asian slaw recipe, try one of these summer salads next:
- Watermelon Salad with Feta
- Easy Pasta Salad
- Best Broccoli Salad
- Cucumber Salad
- Greek Salad
- Or any of these 51 Best Salad Recipes!
Asian Slaw
Ingredients
Dressing
- ¼ cup cashew or peanut butter
- 2 tablespoons white miso paste
- 2 tablespoons lime juice
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon grated ginger
- 2 to 5 tablespoons water, or as needed
For the slaw:
- 6 to 7 cups shredded red and/or green cabbage
- Mix of peppers: I used 3 Anaheim and 3 banana peppers; or use 1 red bell and 1 poblano.
- 2 scallions, chopped
- ½ cup chopped cilantro, including stems
- ½ cup fresh basil, Thai basil, and/or mint
- 2 Thai chiles or 1 serrano pepper, diced
- Sea salt
- ¼ cup toasted peanuts, pepitas, and/or sesame seeds
- 1 ripe peach, thinly sliced
Instructions
- Make the dressing: In a small bowl, whisk together the cashew butter, miso paste, lime juice, sesame oil, and ginger. Whisk in enough water to create a drizzable consistency. Set aside.
- In a dry cast-iron skillet over medium heat, char the peppers whole, rotating until the edges have a little char, about 2 minutes per side. Remove. When cool to the touch, slice in half lengthwise, remove the stem, ribbing, and seeds and slice horizontally into thin strips.
- In a large bowl, combine the cabbage, peppers, scallions, cilantro, basil, chiles, and ¾ of the dressing. Toss until combined. Add the remaining dressing, if desired, and season to taste with a few pinches of sea salt. Serve topped with the toasted nuts, seeds, and sliced peaches.
SO good! I could eat the miso dressing with a spoon. I was skeptical about the peach, but it worked really well with the slaw. I prepped the dressing in advance and then just mixed it with the slaw ingredients when it was time to eat- definitely NOT watery like others mentioned!
Made this slaw for a party. The most frequent comment was “interesting”. There are a lot of ingredients — a couple were very expensive. I took more time than I expected to chop, grate, blister, and juice the ingredients. Doubt I will ever make this again.
Super watery slaw. Basically inedible. The recipe should have specified how to handle the slaw so it doesn’t release a ton of water into the salad
I was intrigued by this by the description, tahini miso dressing. So I went into the link to make the recipe but it asked for cashew or almond butter, no tahini. Should the recipe be tahini or nut butter?
Hi Ella, it actually says “tangy” miso dressing, but tahini totally works in place of the nut butter.
Perfect, thank you. Weird, I’m still reading g tahini here though https://strong-nights.today/salad-recipes/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E%3C/div%3E%3Cdiv class=reply>
oh, that’s an error, so sorry! I thought you were referring to the description at the top of the recipe page. I do tahini miso all the time, so it was just a typo, but it totally works.
The dressing tastes quite similar to Japanese sesame dressing, so I might use that in future for convenience.
Absolutely delicious,
I used the sesame ginger dressing
When down a treat
Thanks for sharing your beautiful creative food.
Is this supposed to be made with toasted sesame oil or untoasted sesame oil?
toasted!
Sorry I didn’t mean that to sound so loud – thanks for pointing that out, I just updated it in the recipe.
Hi! For someone with a nut allergy, how do you think a nut better substitute would work with this recipe? Sounds yummy!
Is there a substitute for miso as a family member is allergic to soy?
Hi Mike, some miso pastes are soy-free made with chickpeas. Otherwise Coconut Aminos (like soy sauce but without soy) would be a good option. Or just regular sea salt – 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon, more to taste, and more water as needed to get to a pourable consistency. Hope that helps!
This salad is delicious!
This sounds wonderful (although I would have to leave out the serrano pepper). I’m curious how long this would keep in the fridge. The problem is that there are only two of us, and we would not be likely to eat it again the next day. I’m very concerned since the last slaw I made went bad before I could finish it, and it didn’t even have any perishable ingredients in it beyond the cabbage.
Hi Susan, I keep it for about 3 days, I find that cabbage gets better on days 2 and 3 because the dressing has the chance to soften it. The most perishable ingredient here is the peach, which you could either skip or slice on as you’re ready to eat. You could half the recipe if you wanted less quantity overall… another idea would be to keep the chopped salad components separate from the dressing if you wanted them all to last a bit longer. I hope that helps!
Thanks, Jeanine! You have a lot of good ideas that are very helpful. I’m looking forward to trying this slaw.
This looks so delicious. I cannot wait to make this as a side for dinner! The miso is such a great addition. Thank you for sharing!
I hope you love it!
I made this with dinner tonight and it’s the perfect summer combination! I will definitely be making this again and again.
And the sauce is so perfect on lunch grain bowls! Thank you for this recipe!
Hi Rachael, I’m so glad you loved it!! Thanks for coming back to let me know!
A keeper. Everyone LOVED this slaw. To the opposite of Stacey’s comment, my slaw was dry so I added a little water to the dressing and it came out perfect. You can throw almost any fruits with this slaw. My wife asked me to prepare the same slaw for tomorrow’s dinner. 🙂 It’s been an amazing journey since I dropped 15 years ago the steak and potato diet. A realm of flavors to discover. Thank you ! Have your book and love your recipes.
Hi Gil, I’m so happy to hear!! I think nut butters can vary in consistency, I definitely needed some water in my dressing too. I’m so glad your family has been loving the recipes and thanks for coming back to let me know – so helpful!!
Great recipe but I would not cut the dressing with any water. The veggies seem to give up water while standing at room temp and I found the dressing doesn’t coat the slaw as well.
Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for the feedback, I’ll make a note about the range of water.
I love this dressing, peanut butter and miso paste, among other things, and the peaches are a nice addition too this time of year
This is perfect timing; I just picked a lot of fresh basil from my garden too! 🙂
Adding peaches to this slaw was pure genius!
Ginger and peaches… now that’s an interesting combo. I’m definitely going to have to try it 🙂