Red Cabbage Salad with Bacon and Goat Cheese

If you’re a fan of bacon and goat cheese, you have to try this amazing Red Cabbage Salad with Bacon and Goat Cheese! And I love this salad with red cabbage, but you can use green cabbage if that’s what you have.

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I’m a huge, huge fan of this tasty Red Cabbage Salad with Bacon and Goat Cheese even though every time I’ve tried to get a really good photo of the salad it didn’t come out quite like I wanted! But please don’t let my limitations as a photographer stop you from trying this amazing salad with slightly-wilted red cabbage, bacon, and goat cheese; I promise this salad tastes amazing even though it was hard to photograph!

When I was a kid, my mom used to make a type of bacon and cabbage salad that everyone in our family loved. Her salad had lots of bacon, and used a huge amount of bacon grease and a little vinegar as the dressing.This cabbage salad has a lot of healthy red cabbage and less bacon than mom’s salad, and the dressing is mostly made from olive oil, for tasty salad with less saturated fat. Of course, use less olive oil and more bacon fat if that’s what you prefer.

Can you use more bacon and cheese in the salad?

I used six slices bacon when I first started making the salad, but now I often use a bit more bacon and of course you can use more or less bacon to make it the way you prefer. I also sometimes make it with a bit more goat cheese these days, which is a big flavor boost, and I think Feta cheese would also be great in this salad.

Want more salads with cabbage?

I’m a huge cabbage salad fan and make them all year for a side dish. If you’re a big cabbage fan like I am, here are more Favorite Salads with Cabbage.

How to make this salad:

(Scroll down for complete recipe with nutritional information.)

1. Cook the bacon until it’s very crisp and most of the fat is cooked out, then drain the pan but don’t wipe it out.
2. Drain the bacon on paper towels.
3. Cut up the cabbage into quarters and cut away the core. Slice the cabbage into thin strips.
4. I like a mix of thinner and slightly thinner strips for texture. Use any color of  cabbage you prefer, but I love this salad with red cabbage.
5. Crumble the goat cheese immediately when you remove it from the fridge.
6. Add the olive oil to the pan and heat, then cook the red onions until they’re starting to soften.
7. Add the vinegar and simmer 30-45 seconds. 
8. Then add the cabbage and cook until it’s barely wilted, tossing to coat with the dressing. 
9. Season cabbage with salt and pepper, then put cabbage in a bowl and toss in the bacon and goat cheese.  YUM!

More Salads with Cabbage:

Amazing Low-Carb Cabbage Salads You’ll Make over and Over ~ Kalyn’s Kitchen
Red Cabbage Salad ~ Taste and Tell
Thai Cabbage Slaw ~ Kalyn’s Kitchen

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Yield: 6 servings

Red Cabbage Salad with Bacon and Goat Cheese

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 6 minutes

Total Time 26 minutes

This Red Cabbage Salad with Bacon and Goat Cheese is so delicious; feel free to use more bacon and goat cheese if you prefer!

Ingredients

• 1 small head red cabbage
• 6 slices bacon (see notes)
• 3 T extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 cup diced red onion
• 3 T red wine vinegar
• salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
• 3 oz. crumbled goat cheese (see notes)

Instructions

1. Heat a frying pan (large enough to hold the cabbage) and cook bacon until very crisp.
2. Drain bacon on paper towels.
3. Pour out bacon fat, but don’t wipe out frying pan.
4. Remove discolored outer leaves of cabbage, then quarter cabbage and cut away the core.
5. Slice cabbage into thin strips and put into large bowl.
6. Add olive oil to pan and saute onions until barely softened, 2-3 minutes.
7. Add vinegar and simmer 30 seconds.
8. Add cabbage and cook 2-3 minutes, stirring to coat cabbage with dressing.
9. Cabbage should still be crisp.
10. Crumble bacon while cabbage cooks.
11. Turn off heat and season cabbage with salt and pepper.
12. Pour cabbage back into bowl, add bacon, crumble goat cheese over and stir to combine.
13. Arrange salad on individual plates and serve.

Notes

I used pre-cooked bacon, then crisped the bacon and blotted off some of the fat; use your favorite method for cooking bacon. Three ounces goat cheese is about 2/3 cup when it's crumbled. You can definitely use more bacon and/or goat cheese for the salad if you prefer!

This recipe slightly adapted from Vegetables Every Day (affiliate link).

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

6

Serving Size:

1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 188Total Fat: 14gSaturated Fat: 4gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 9gCholesterol: 18mgSodium: 382mgCarbohydrates: 9gFiber: 3gSugar: 4gProtein: 8g

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 Diet Suggestions:
Red Cabbage Salad with Bacon and Goat Cheese would be a great side dish for any Low-Carb eating plan, and personally I’d splurge on a little bacon and eat it for the South Beach Diet as well. If you’re following the letter of the law for South Beach you could use turkey bacon.

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

Historical Notes for this Recipe:
Cabbage Salad with Bacon and Goat Cheese was first posted April 2007 and last updated in 2021.

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