Puerto Rican Spicy Cabbage Salad

Puerto Rican Spicy Cabbage Salad is crunchy, spicy, and loaded with flavor, and this would be a fun salad when you don’t have lettuce on hand! 

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I love March because it’s the time of year when cabbage goes on sale in grocery stores everywhere, and I am such a huge cabbage fan. So for the month of March I’m going to spotlight some of my favorite recipes using cabbage that you may have missed in the abundance of recipes on this site. And if you’re a cabbage fan like I am, I hope you might discover some new favorite you’ll want to make over and over!

The minute I saw this Puerto Rican Cabbage Salad on Champaign Taste (a blog that no longer exists), I knew I was going to make some version of the salad, since I adore cabbage salad, and cabbage is one of The World’s Healthiest Foods. And when I made Puerto Rican Spicy Cabbage Salad I loved it from the very first bite. The spicy cabbage salad got two thumbs up from my sister Val and brother-in-law Jon as well, and this salad has definitely become a favorite.

Is this an authentic Puerto Rican Salad?

After doing a little internet research about Caribbean cabbage salads, I came up with the recipe you see here, upping the crunch factor with radishes, adding some chopped celery leaves and green onions, and using a touch of lime juice in the dressing. Since you can get good cherry tomatoes all year, I used those in this tasty salad, but if you have fresh garden tomatoes it will be even better!  With my changes I don’t know how authentically Puerto Rican the recipe is, so if you’re a food purist you may just want to call this “cabbage salad” but no matter what you call it, if you try this recipe I predict you’ll love it just as much as I do.

What ingredients do you need for this recipe:

• 6 cups chopped green cabbage
•  1 cup diced tomatoes (see notes)
•  1/2 cup sliced celery
•  1/2 cup chopped celery leaves (optional, but good)
•  6 radishes, cut into half-moon slices
•  1/4 cup sliced green onions (dark green part)
•  2 T apple cider vinegar
•  2 tsp. fresh lime juice (see notes)
•  1/2 tsp. salt
•  1/2 tsp. hot pepper sauce, or more (see notes)
•  3 T olive oil (see notes)

How to Make Puerto Rican Spicy Cabbage Salad:

(Scroll down for complete recipe with nutritional information.)

1. Chop up 5-6 cups of green cabbage, about half of a large head of cabbage.
2. Chop up 1 cup of tomatoes. (I used the grape tomatoes from Costco that I love in the winter.)
3. Slice about 1/2 cup of celery and chop 1/2 cup of celery leaves. If the celery is large, I might cut it in half before slicing.
4. Cut about 6 radishes into half-moon slices and slice 1/4 cup green onions. (Use more radishes and less tomatoes if you’d like to reduce the carbs!)
5. Mix together the apple cider vinegar, lime juice, salt, and hot pepper sauce; then whisk in the oil, 1 tablespoon at a time.
6. Toss the salad ingredients together, then toss the salad with the dressing.
7. Can be served right away or kept in the fridge for a few hours before serving.

More Tasty Cabbage Salad Recipes:

Low-Carb Spicy Cilantro Peanut Slaw ~ Kalyn’s Kitchen
Fried Cabbage and Bacon Slaw ~ The View from Great Island
Val’s Sweet Cabbage Slaw with Green Onion and Parsley ~ from Kalyn’s Kitchen
5-Minute BLT Coleslaw ~ Plating Pixels
Ridiculously Easy Blue Cheese Coleslaw ~ kalyn’s Kitchen
5-Minute Broccoli Kale Slaw ~ Valerie’s Kitchen
Low-Carb Spicy Mexican Slaw with Lime and Cilantro ~ from Kalyn’s Kitchen

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Yield: 6 servings

Puerto Rican Spicy Cabbage Salad

Prep Time 20 minutes

Total Time 20 minutes

This Puerto Rican Spicy Cabbage Salad is crunchy, spicy, and loaded with good flavors!

Ingredients

Ingredients:

• 6 cups chopped green cabbage
• 1 cup diced tomatoes (see notes)
• 1/2 cup sliced celery
• 1/2 cup chopped celery leaves (optional, but good)
• 6 radishes, cut into half-moon slices
• 1/4 cup sliced green onions (dark green part)

Dressing Ingredients:

• 2 T apple cider vinegar
• 2 tsp. fresh lime juice (see notes)
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. hot pepper sauce, or more (see notes)
• 3 T olive oil (see notes)

Instructions

1. Chop up 5-6 cups of green cabbage, about half of a large head of cabbage. I chop the cabbage fairly small, but not as thin as you'd slice it for coleslaw.
2. Chop up 1 cup of tomatoes.  (I use grape tomatoes from Costco when tomatoes aren't in season, but fresh garden tomatoes would be great in this salad.)
3. Slice 1/2 cup of celery and chop 1/2 cup of celery leaves.  (If the celery is large, I might cut it in half before slicing.)
4. Trim stem and root end from about 6 large radishes and cut the radishes into half-moon slices.
5. Slice 1/4 cup green onions, mostly dark green part if possible.
6. Mix together the apple cider vinegar, lime juice, salt, and hot pepper sauce; then whisk in the oil, 1 tablespoon at a time. Taste dressing to see if you'd like to add a little more lime juice. (I did!)
7. Toss the salad ingredients together, then toss the salad with the dressing.
8. This salad can be served right away or kept in the fridge for a few hours before serving. It doesn't keep especially well overnight due to the tomatoes, so if this makes more than you'd eat at one time I'd chop up the cabbage, celery, radishes and green onions and make the dressing and keep ingredients separate in the fridge. Then chop tomatoes and toss the dressing on each serving of salad as you eat it.

Notes

I used diced grape tomatoes; you can use less tomatoes and more radishes to reduce carbs if you prefer. Use one teaspoon lime juice and then taste to see if you want more. Use any hot sauce that has a good flavor. If you have some type of Caribbean hot sauce it would be perfect, you can start with a small amount of hot sauce and add more until it's as spicy as you prefer. Any neutral-flavored oil of your choice will work.

This recipe was inspired by a salad recipe I saw on a blog that no longer exists, and I did some internet research on Caribbean Cabbage Salads to come up with the version you see here!

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

6

Serving Size:

1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 109Total Fat: 7gSaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 6gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 288mgCarbohydrates: 11gFiber: 4gSugar: 6gProtein: 3g

Nutrition information is automatically calculated by the Recipe Plug-In I am using. I am not a nutritionist and cannot guarantee 100% accuracy, since many variables affect those calculations.

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Low-Carb Diet / Low-Glycemic Diet / South Beach Suggestions:
This Puerto Rican Spicy Cabbage Salad is loaded with healthful low-glycemic ingredients, and is a great choice for any phase of the South Beach Diet as well as being low-carb, gluten-free, dairy-free, and vegan. I’m not sure this salad is Keto but if you’re strictly limiting carbs you might want to use less tomatoes and more radishes, which will still be delicious! And if you use approved hot sauce and oil this salad can easily be Paleo or Whole 30.

Find More Recipes Like This One:
Use Salad Recipes to find more tasty cabbage salads like this one. Use the Recipes by Diet Type photo index pages to find more recipes suitable for a specific eating plan. You can also Follow Kalyn’s Kitchen on Pinterest to see all the good recipes I’m sharing there.

Historical Notes for this Recipe:
This recipe was posted in 2011. It was updated with more information in 2021.

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