Cabbage Slaw Pasta Salad

I love playing around with different salads and dressings and this is one of my favorite salads to make.  It's really herbaceous, light, and filling and is a great lunch to to bring to work.  My one note is that you should definitely add the herbs to the salad because it makes a huge difference.  Typically, when I'm looking at recipes for meals to bring to work for lunch, I cut out some of the "unnecessary" ingredients to simplify things.  I'm here to tell you that the herbs in this salad are totally necessary.  It's a pretty basic salad unless you add the extra dimension of the herbs, so trust me on this one and just do it.

I also top my pasta salad with my Cast Iron Soy Marinated Chicken to make it a complete meal.  My husband is a big protein eater and usually just eats his proteins with something simple like spinach with balsamic.  Since we've been in quarantine, it's been challenging us both to eat differently.  I was honestly a little nervous that he wouldn't like this recipe because he's not big on pasta and I've never seen him eat a cabbage salad before.  But guess what?  He loved it!  I know it sounds silly, but it made me really happy because this is a go-to salad that I've made a ton.  So now that I've shared it with him and he approved, I can confidently share it with you all! 😋

Servings: 6-8
Total Time: 20-25 minutes

Ingredients:

For the Salad:
1/2 head cabbage, shredded
1/2 head red cabbage, shredded
1 cup shredded carrots
2 red bell peppers, diced
1/4 cup fresh basil
1/4 cup fresh cilantro
3 cups penne pasta, cooked and cooled

For the Dressing:
1/4 cup avocado oil
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp paprika
5 shakes of fish sauce
2 tsp honey
2 tbs rice vinegar
Hot sauce to taste

Optional: top this salad with Cast Iron Skillet Soy Marinated Chicken Thighs
You can also top your salad with sesame seeds, chopped peanuts, or even mandarin orange segments!


Instructions:

1. Cook pasta according to instructions and set aside in refrigerator to cool.
2. Shred your cabbage heads
3. Chop your bell pepper
4. Roughly chop your herbs
5. Mix together your cabbage, bell pepper, shredded carrots, chopped herbs, and pasta.
6. Toss with dressing and top with optional selections as well.
7. Enjoy!

Cook and drain your pasta first.  Then set aside and refrigerate while you make the rest of the salad.

Chop your heads of cabbage in 1/2 and set aside the other halves.  You won't need them.  You can also buy bags of pre-shredded cabbage at some stores.  For this salad, I usually use the pre-shredded bags of cabbage & carrots from Trader Joe's because it makes prep so much easier!

Finely shred your cabbage and chop your bell peppers.

Mix your veg and chopped herbs together in a bowl and look at how pretty all the colors are together!

Add your pasta once it's cooled fully.

Optional: Top with soy marinated chicken and toss with dressing.

See how easy that was? And it's super tasty, so there's no excuse for not cooking at home.