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Asian Red Cabbage Salad is a tasty combination that includes chicken, sugar snap peas, and a tangy dressing with peanut butter and soy sauce. And this is low in carbs for a main-dish salad and has 32 grams of protein!

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Asian Red Cabbage Salad with Chicken shown in two serving bowls with forks.

This Asian Red Cabbage Salad is a main dish salad that has turned out to be one of my favorites, and there’s no doubt that sweet red cabbage is one of my most-used salad ingredients. Of course, I’m a fan of all the healthy cruciferous vegetables, but the one I almost always have in my vegetable crisper is cabbage. This favorite cabbage salad is a main dish salad that’s great for lunch or dinner, and I’d eat this any time of year.

The flavorful Asian dressing with peanut butter and soy sauce is one thing that makes this salad so satisfying, and I love the combination of red cabbage, chicken, and sugar snap peas with that dressing. But if you’d like to switch it up a bit, see some other ideas below.

What ingredients do you need?

(This is only a list of ingredients; please scroll down for complete printable recipe. Or if you use the JUMP TO RECIPE link at the top of the page, it will take you directly to the complete recipe.)

How low in carbs is the Asian Red Cabbage Salad?

This red cabbage salad with Asian flavored dressing, chicken, and sugar snap peas only has about 9 net carbs per serving and 32 grams of protein!

Can you make the Asian Red Cabbage Salad without cilantro?

If you don’t enjoy the flavor of cilantro, just replace it in this salad recipe with more thinly-sliced green onion, including the cilantro in the dressing.

What dressing do I use for the Asian Red Cabbage Salad?

The dressing I use for this favorite red cabbage salad is a slightly-sweetened combination of ginger, garlic, cilantro (if using), peanut butter, lemon juice, peanut oil, and soy sauce, and we absolutely loved this combination when we tested the recipe.

Want more options for Asian Red Cabbage Salad?

There are lots of ingredient options for this salad with red cabbage:

  • I used a mix of red cabbage and sugar snap peas, but you could use other vegetables like red peppers or carrots.
  • I love this with leftover rotisserie chicken, but I think it would also be tasty with shrimp.
  • And if you don’t want meat, I think you could use all veggies and make a delicious salad.

Want more salad recipes using cabbage?

If you’re a cabbage salad fan you might want to check out Low-Carb and Keto Cabbage Salads; that collection has all my favorites!

Red Cabbage and Chicken Asian Salad process shots collage

How to make Asian Red Cabbage Salad:

(This is only a summary of the steps for the recipe; please scroll down for complete printable recipe. Or if you use the JUMP TO RECIPE link at the top of the page, it will take you directly to the complete recipe.)

  1. Slice up several cups of red cabbage. I’d use a Mandoline Slicer (affiliate link) to get thin slices of cabbage.
  2. Slice the green onions and sugar snap peas (or use a different vegetable.)
  3. Chop up a few cups of cooked chicken.
  4. Buzz together ginger, garlic, chopped cilantro (or green onion), peanut butter, lemon juice, peanut oil, soy sauce or Gluten-Free Soy Sauce (affiliate link), hot water, and sweetener of your choice to make the dressing.
  5. Toss chicken with part of the dressing, until all the chicken is well-coated with dressing.
  6. Add red cabbage, sugar snap peas, and sliced green onions and toss, adding more dressing if desired.
  7. Then toast the almonds and sprinkle over the red cabbage salad and enjoy!

Asian Red Cabbage Salad with Chicken shown in two bowls with forks, salt, and pepper.

More Salads with Cabbage:

Asian Red Cabbage Salad with Chicken shown in two serving bowls with forks.
Yield: 4 servings

Asian Red Cabbage Salad

Prep Time 30 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes

This delicious Asian Red Cabbage Salad has chicken, sugar-snap peas, and a tasty dressing with peanut butter, and it's a perfect mainn-dish salad for lunch! And this salad is loaded with amazing Asian flavors.

Ingredients

Salad Ingredients

  • (You can use other vegetables or vary the proportions of different ingredients based on what you have.)
  • 2  cups very thinly sliced red cabbage
  • 1 cup diagonally sliced sugar snap peas (see notes)
  • 1/4 cup diagonally sliced green onions (scallions)
  • 3 cups diced cooked chicken (see notes)

Dressing Ingredients

  • 1/2 tsp. ginger puree or minced fresh ginger
  • 1/2 tsp. garlic puree or minced fresh garlic
  • 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro (see notes)
  • 3 T peanut butter (see notes)
  • 1 T fresh squeezed lemon juice
  • 2 T peanut oil
  • 3 T soy sauce (see notes)
  • 1 T very hot water
  • 1 T sweetener of your choice (see notes)

Garnish Ingredients

  • 2 T finely chopped fresh cilantro
  • 1/4 cup slivered almonds

Instructions

  1. Remove outer leaves from cabbage, cut out core, and cut into thin slices not more than 1/4 inch thick; use a Mandoline Slicer (affiliate link) to cut the cabbage if you have one.
  2. Cut sugar snap peas (or other vegetables) into thin diagonal slices or matchstick pieces and thinly slice green onions.
  3. Chop chicken into pieces about 1 inch square.
  4. Put ginger puree, garlic, cilantro (or sliced green onion), peanut butter, lemon juice, peanut oil, soy sauce or gluten-free soy sauce, hot water, and sweetener of your choice in food processor.
  5. Pulse about one minute, until ingredients are well combined. (I think this could be done in a blender if you don’t have a food processor.)
  6. Taste to see if you want more peanut butter.
  7. Put the chopped chicken into a large salad bowl with about half the dressing, then toss until all the chicken is coated with dressing.
  8. Add the cabbage, sugar snap peas, and sliced green onions and toss, adding more dressing as desired.
  9. Divide Asian Red Cabbage Salad into individual serving bowls and garnish with chopped cilantro and almonds or peanuts.

Notes

Carrots or red bell peppers would also be good, or use a combination of veggies if you prefer. Leftover rotisserie chicken is great for this salad.

Use sliced green onion in the dressing if you’re not a cilantro fan. Low sodium soy sauce is fine; use Gluten-Free Soy Sauce (affiliate link) for gluten-free. I would use Monkfruit Sweetener (affiliate link) for this recipe. Use natural low-sugar peanut butter, or pick the peanut butter with the least amount of sugar; use more or less peanut butter to taste.

Recipe adapted from Cooking New American.

Nutrition Information

Yield

4

Serving Size

1
Amount Per Serving Calories 440Total Fat 29gSaturated Fat 6gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 20gCholesterol 95mgSodium 813mgCarbohydrates 14gFiber 5gSugar 6gProtein 32g

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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© Kalyn Denny
Category: Salads
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Low-Carb Diet / Low-Glycemic Diet / South Beach Diet Suggestions:
This Asian Red Cabbage Salad is perfect whole meal salad for low-carb or Keto diets. It’s also good for the original South Beach Diet, as long as you use an approved sweetener for the dressing. For low-carb diets or South Beach use low-sugar peanut butter. (Peanut butter labeled “natural” is usually low in sugar.)

Find More Recipes Like This One:
Use Salad Recipes to find more recipes like this one. Use the Diet Type Index to find recipes suitable for a specific eating plan. You might also like to follow Kalyn’s Kitchen on Pinterest, on Facebook, on Instagram, on TikTok, or on YouTube to see all the good recipes I’m sharing there.

Historical Notes for this Recipe:
This Asian Red Cabbage Salad was first posted in 2008! The recipe was updated with better photos in 2015 and last updated with more information in 2025.

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