All of the food on our rafting trip was excellent (somewhat surprisingly), and among the deliciousness, this mango cabbage salad with poppy seed dressing stood out for me as one of the best meals. It's refreshingly crunchy with the cabbage and cashews, a little sweet from the mango, cooling from the cucumbers, creamy from the feta, and addictive with poppy seed dressing. Our raft guides served it with filet Mignon and potatoes au gratin, which happen to be two of my favorite things, yet all I wanted to eat was this salad.
Mainly because I liked this salad so much, I begged and pleaded until I was permitted to photograph their recipes. I tested the scaled-down and adapted recipe on a bunch of unsuspecting friends last night and people loved it. Of the savory options, it disappeared rapidly, even though it was competing with fresh scallion rolls and tomato scones. It vanished much faster than the tomato-watermelon gazpacho I also served (although maybe because people wanted to drink the gazpacho with vodka as a bloody Mary (I was right!) ... or because I only had a stack of pilfered red Solo cups for serving the gazpacho.)
This mango cabbage salad will serve about 4-6 as a main course, or 8-10 as a small starter. It comes together really quickly, especially if you have a food processor to make short work of shredding the cabbage. Just chop all the vegetables into bite-sized pieces, grate the beet and carrot if using, crumble in the feta, add cashews, dress, then serve. It's possible to prep all the vegetables in advance and keep them chilled, simply add the feta, nuts, and dressing right before serving. Once fully assembled, this mango cabbage salad will keep in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours, but it will lose its crunchiness. That's exactly what has happened in the photo above, especially to those cashews. I didn't have time to take a picture after assembly but before serving, so the leftovers were my photography subject and lunch today.
You should think of this recipe as a template rather than a strict set of measurements. If you like raw onion, grated beet and/or grated carrot in your salad, add those optional ingredients in. I don't like any of that in my salad, so I omitted them. If you can't stand cabbage, use half or all iceberg lettuce (although I hope you don't, because it won't be as good without the cabbage), or maybe shred raw Brussels sprouts and dress them 15 minutes before adding the other ingredients to help them soften. Add a little more or less dressing, cashews, and/or feta.....Or make it as I've written here, because it's plenty delicious exactly as it stands.
In the Canyon, we used Brianna's Poppy Seed Dressing with our mango cabbage salad. However, as much as I love Brianna's, I wanted to make my own dressing and preferably one that was healthier. I found a great version on Love Grows Wild, which is what I lightly adapted for use here.
Mango Cabbage Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing
Ingredients
Salad
- 1 small head (930g) red cabbage, cored or ½ head (465 g) each red and green cabbage*, cored
- 2 ripe mangoes
- 1 English cucumber
- 2 red Bell peppers stemmed and seeded
- optional: 1 medium carrot peeled
- optional: 1 medium beet root and stem removed
- optional: ½ medium red onion skinned and thinly sliced
- ¾ cup cashews pieces or coarsely chopped
- 6 - 8 oz Feta cheese** crumbled
- ¾ - 1 cup poppy seed dressing
Poppy Seed Dressing (makes 1 cup)
- ½ cup plain Greek yogurt nonfat, 2%, or whole
- ⅓ cup apple cider vinegar
- ¼ cup sugar or honey
- 1 tablespoon caramelized red onions or chopped yellow onion
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ⅓ cup vegetable oil
- 1 tablespoon poppy seeds
Instructions
- Wash and pat dry the vegetables (a salad spinner comes in handy for the cabbage). While they dry, assemble the dressing.
Dressing
- Place everything but the oil and poppy seeds into the base of your blender or food processor. Turn blender on, increase speed to high, and puree until everything is blended.
- Lower the speed to low, and slowly drizzle in the olive oil to emulsify. Blend another 10 seconds.
- Add the poppy seeds and pulse 3-5 times. Refrigerate until use.
Salad
- Shred the cabbage(s). If using iceberg lettuce, roughly chop into bite-sized pieces. Place into a large bowl.
- Slice the cucumber into quarters lengthwise, chop into thin pieces. Add to bowl.
- Slice the red peppers into thin sticks, chop into quarters. Add to bowl.
- Peel the mango, carefully extract fruit from around pit, and chop. Add to bowl.
- If using, peel the beet and/or carrot, then grate using a box grater. Similarly, if using onion, peel and thinly slice. Add to bowl.
- Add cashews, feta, and poppy seed dressing to the bowl, then toss to combine (If using, beet will likely stain your salad purple). Serve immediately.
- This salad is best eaten within an hour of making it. If you'd like to make it ahead of time, assemble everything before the cashews, feta, and dressing. Add those three components just before serving. Once dressed this salad will keep, tightly covered, in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours but everything will be much softer as the dressing soaks in.
Notes
**Feta is definitely the kind of cheese where it pays to buy the pricier but better brands. My favorite is the one from Israel Arik introduced me to, by Pastures of Eden, which you can find at Trader Joe's if you're lucky enough to have one nearby.
Nutrition
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