I live in Georgia and I call upstate New York for Southern recipes. My Aunt Lisa is my mom’s sister, and she married Mike, whose family is from Mississippi — so she learned to cook all of it for him. She’s the one I ask. She taught me biscuits, biscuits and gravy, macaroni salad, and this creamy coleslaw.
The vinegar is the part that’s hers — a half cup of it, the same amount as the mayonnaise. It stays creamy with something sharp underneath, and I’ve never found a reason to change a thing about it. Two bags of shredded cabbage and a dressing you whisk in one bowl. It goes next to oven baked ribs, on top of a pulled pork sandwich, and beside a pan of baked beans all summer. The bowl comes back empty every time, and somebody always asks me for it.
Watch the full reel on Instagram → @whisk__and__wine
Jump to:
Creamy Coleslaw Ingredients
You probably have most of this already. The onion is optional, but it’s what makes people ask what’s in it.
- Bagged coleslaw mix (shredded cabbage and carrot)
- Granulated sugar
- White distilled vinegar
- Mayonnaise
- Whole milk
- Salt
- Black pepper
- Yellow onion, grated (optional)
See the recipe card for quantities.
Why You'll Love This Creamy Coleslaw
- No knife work. Two bags of pre-shredded cabbage and you're done. Nobody needs to shred a head of cabbage before a party.
- It's a make-ahead. This is better after a few hours in the fridge than it is the second you mix it. That's rare and it's useful.
- Creamy and tangy, not just creamy. Equal parts vinegar and mayonnaise. The vinegar is the whole reason it works.
- It feeds a crowd. Twenty-eight ounces of cabbage fills a real serving bowl.
- Ten minutes. Everything into one bowl, toss, walk away.
How to Make Creamy Coleslaw
One bowl, and everything goes in at once. There's no dressing to make separately.
Combine All Ingredients
In a large bowl with tight lid, combine cabbage, mayo, vinegar, sugar, salt, pepper, grated onion and milk. Toss to combine.
Chill and Serve
Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours, or overnight. Toss again right before it goes on the table. Serve alongside your favorite cookout mains!
Substitutions
Everything here swaps cleanly. None of it breaks the recipe.
- Apple cider vinegar instead of white. Softer and a little fruity. Use the same ½ cup.
- Half-and-half instead of milk. Richer, and it mutes the tang. Good for people who claim they don't like coleslaw.
- Greek yogurt for half the mayonnaise. Tangier and lighter. Use ¼ cup yogurt and ¼ cup mayo.
- Two small heads of green cabbage, shredded. About 8 cups, plus a shredded carrot. More work, better crunch.
Variations
- Sweeter. Add another ¼ cup of sugar. If you like it sweet, do this - it's the change I get asked about most.
- Spicy. A ½ teaspoon of cayenne, or a spoonful of whatever hot sauce is already open.
- Deli-style. One teaspoon of celery seed turns it into the slaw you get next to a pastrami sandwich.
- More crunch. Fold in sliced scallions and an extra handful of shredded carrot right before serving.
Equipment
Nothing specialized. You need a bowl big enough to actually toss in, which is the one thing people get wrong.
- Large bowl with a tight lid. Everything goes in this one bowl and stays there - you toss it, cover it, and it chills in the same thing. Get one bigger than you think; twenty-eight ounces of cabbage needs room to move or you'll be pushing dressing around instead of coating anything. I use a Pyrex glass set so I can see whether the bottom is still gritty; this non-toxic set costs less and does the same job.
- Box grater. For the onion. Grated onion disappears into the dressing in a way that chopped onion never does. The KitchenAid Gourmet grater has the sturdiest handle I've used; the Spring Chef box grater is the budget one and it's still stainless.
- Glass measuring cup. Five of the eight ingredients are half-cup measures, so one cup you can read at a glance does the whole job. This Pyrex two-pack covers everything here; a single Pyrex 2-cup is plenty if you only want one.
- Airtight storage. This lives in the fridge for a few hours minimum and leftovers keep for days. Caraway glass containers are what I reach for; these Vtopmart glass containers are the cheaper glass option.
Storage
- Fridge, airtight, up to 4 days. Days one and two are the best of it.
- Liquid pools at the bottom. That's the cabbage releasing water and it's supposed to happen. Toss it back through - don't drain it.
- Don't freeze it. Cabbage comes out of the freezer as mush, and the dressing separates.
- Keep it cold on a buffet. It's mayonnaise-based, so set the bowl inside a larger bowl of ice and don't leave it out more than 2 hours - 1 hour if it's above 90 degrees.
Top Tip
Two hours in the fridge is the floor, and it's not really about texture. Mix this and serve it right away and all you taste is mayonnaise. Give it two hours and the sugar and vinegar come forward, the mayo drops back where it belongs, and the dressing tightens up as the cabbage releases its water. I make mine at 7:30 in the morning for a four o'clock dinner.
Up to a full day. Two hours is the minimum, and that isn't a texture thing - it's so the mayonnaise doesn't overpower everything else. Straight out of the bowl it tastes like mayo. Two hours in the fridge and the sugar and vinegar come forward. Overnight is better still. I make mine the morning of a party and it sits until dinner without losing its crunch.
Because salt and sugar pull water out of cabbage, which is exactly what you want them doing. The liquid at the bottom of the bowl is normal. Toss it back through before serving instead of draining it off, or you'll lose most of the dressing with it.
That's what I use. Two 14-ounce bags is 28 ounces total, and this dressing is measured for exactly that. Shredding two heads of cabbage by hand gets you a better crunch if you want to spend the twenty minutes.
Plain white distilled vinegar. It's sharp and it stays out of the way, which is what you want against all that mayonnaise. Apple cider vinegar works and tastes a little softer and fruitier if that's what's in your pantry.
More from Whisk & Wine
Here's what else I've been cooking lately.
Easy Sides Worth Making
The rest of the table, so you're not building a menu from scratch.
Creamy Coleslaw (Sweet and Tangy)
- Total Time: 2 hours 10 minutes
- Yield: 12 servings 1x
Description
A creamy coleslaw with equal parts vinegar and mayonnaise, so it's tangy instead of heavy. Two bags of shredded cabbage, one bowl, ten minutes of work - and it gets better while it chills.
Ingredients
- 2 (14 oz) bags coleslaw mix (shredded cabbage and carrot)
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup white distilled vinegar
- ½ cup mayonnaise
- ½ cup whole milk
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- ½ cup grated yellow onion (optional)
Get Recipe Ingredients
Instructions
- Add both 14 oz bags of coleslaw mix to a large bowl with a tight-fitting lid.
- Add ½ cup mayonnaise, ½ cup white distilled vinegar, ½ cup granulated sugar, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon black pepper, and ½ cup whole milk to the bowl. Add ½ cup grated yellow onion, if using.
- Toss until every shred of cabbage is coated. The mixture will look loose.
- Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to overnight.
- Toss again just before serving.
Notes
Do not skip the 2-hour chill. Served right away the mayonnaise overpowers everything else; two hours in the refrigerator lets the sugar and vinegar come forward.
For a sweeter slaw, add an additional ¼ cup of granulated sugar to the dressing. Liquid will collect at the bottom of the bowl as the cabbage releases water - toss it back through rather than draining it. Store covered in the refrigerator up to 4 days. Do not freeze.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 0 minutes
- Category: Side Dish
- Method: No-Cook
- Cuisine: American
Comments
No Comments