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A Lebanese Style Coleslaw
This simple Lebanese cabbage salad is super quick and easy to make and is something I make all the time with classic Lebanese recipes, especially when we’re grilling recipes like chicken kabobs and beef kafta. Traditionally it doesn’t include tomatoes, but I love the added color and taste.
Happy Cooking!
– Yumna
Lebanese Cabbage Salad Ingredients
- Cabbage: Use green cabbage for this recipe. It has a great peppery flavor and is wonderfully crunchy and more traditional. I often make this salad using the smaller leaves left over from making stuffed cabbage.
- Tomatoes: Dice the tomatoes small for the cabbage salad. I use regular roma tomatoes, but cherry tomatoes will also work.
- Green Onions: Or any onions will work, but green is a mild choice that works with the salad.
- Parsley: Parsley adds a nice freshness but you can also use cilantro or fresh mint.
- Dressing: The dressing is made up of extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, dried mint, sumac, salt and pepper.
How to Make Lebanese Cabbage Salad
Recipe Tips
- Shred evenly. Ideally, you want long thin ribbons. A mandolin or the slicing disk of a food processor keeps every strand the same thickness, so the dressing coats evenly and you get a consistent crunch.
- Shred the cabbage, don’t cut the cabbage. You can use a knife to shred the cabbage finely, but it can be tedious. I find a wide vegetable peeler (affiliate link) is the best way to accomplish this quickly!
- Salt and drain your cabbage before you dress it. Cabbage has a high water concentration and freshly shredded cabbage can get really soggy if you add salt to it. So any salt in the dressing will pull out that moisture in the cabbage and ruin the creamy dressing that coleslaw is supposed to have. Pre-salting allows you to pull out that moisture first and then add the dressing.
- Chill before serving. This allows the cabbage to soak up some dressing and for the texture to firm back up so each bite is crisp, not watery. I would recommend 30 minutes or up to 4 hours.
Serving Ideas
Typically this is served alongside rice dishes or grilled meat dishes. Here are a few of my favorite dishes to go with this Lebanese cabbage salad.
- Lebanese Mujadara
- Mujadara Hamra
- Grilled Beef Kabobs
- Grilled Mediterranean Chicken Kabobs
- Shish Tawook
- Beef Kafta
Recipe Help & FAQs
Store the coleslaw in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days. The salad will actually get better as it sits especially if you took the time to salt and drain the cabbage to remove extra moisture
To soften cabbage for coleslaw, finely slice it and then salt it to draw out excess moisture. This step really tenderizes the cabbage and prevent it from becoming watery when you add the dressing.
More Summer Salads:
- Healthy Coleslaw
- Tabouli
- Lebanese Fattoush Salad
- Cauliflower Potato Salad
- Corn Tomato Avoado Salad
- Healthy Tuna Salad
- Healthy Egg Salad
- Avocado Chicken Salad
- Apple Walnut Salad
- Shirazi Salad
- Peach Salad
If you try this Lebanese Cabbage Salad recipe or any other recipe on Feel Good Foodie, then don’t forget to rate the recipe and leave a comment below! It helps others who are thinking of making the recipe. I would love to hear about your experience making it. And if you snapped some shots, share it on Instagram so we can repost on Stories!
Lebanese Cabbage Salad
Ingredients
For the salad
- 6 cups green cabbage shredded
- ½ cup tomatoes diced
- ½ cup parsley packed and chopped
- 3 green onions sliced
For the dressing
- ⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil
- ¼ cup fresh lemon juice
- ½ teaspoon dried mint
- ¼ teaspoon sumac optional
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 garlic clove pressed
Instructions
- In a small bowl, mix the ingredients of the dressing together.
- Place shredded green cabbage, diced tomatoes, and chopped parsley in a large bowl. Pour the dressing over the coleslaw and toss to combine.
- Serve immediately, or cover and refrigerate for up to 4 hours.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information provided is an estimate. It will vary based on cooking method and specific ingredients used.
Is this a traditional Lebanese salad or your personal creation? If it is traditional what is its name? The Lebanese cabbage salad that I am familiar with is basically cabbage, carrot, lemon, oil, a little garlic and salt.
This is based on a traditional recipe that’s usually made with just cabbage, olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, and salt. But I like to add the mint, sumac, tomatoes, green onions, and parsley. We call it salatit malfouf and I think your version with the carrot is pretty similar.
Yum! this salad is a keeper. I used red cabbage and fresh mint in the salad as I didn’t have any dried and added more sumac because I love it. So good I kept eating it as I was preparing the rest of dinner.
When you’re snacking on the recipe while still cooking, that’s when you know it’s good haha!! So happy you loved it, Gen! Thank you so much!!
I’m accustomed to tweaking recipes but this is just perfect as it is! We paired it with Maqluba for a fresh crunch. Will definitely make again.
Aww I’m so glad you liked it!
Very good paired with BBQ ribs
Thanks for your feedback and pairing suggestion!
Thanks, I LOVE this salad. We have it every couple of weeks. I make a big batch and it keeps really well for a few days. It is an excellent side dish for fish, meat or veggie curry. Depending what we are having it with, I swap the tomatoes with grated carrots. Trying to use less oil, I use the tiniest bit of olive oil, and add some chopped toasted almonds, and it still tastes really fantastic. So great for when you look in the fridge and think – what am I going to do with this cabbage that has been sitting in here for weeks! Cabbage is a cheap ingredient and keeps really well. Thanks again for posting this recipe.
So glad you enjoy this!
LOVE it too Hannah. Thank you very much Yumna. SO SO good for a single person. Cabbage keeps, then make it again and you have a day or so of great stuff. I reverse the quantities for oil/lemon. But that is just my taste! It is pretty much a weekly event for me now as I always have cabbage.
Yay, I love that it’s become a go-to salad for you! Thanks so much for sharing, Macarl!!