This pretty, delicious Creamy Coleslaw is sweetened with a little maple syrup and punched up with freshly-squeezed lemon juice. Very easy to make, it keeps nicely in the refrigerator, and transports well for picnics.

creamy coleslaw in three bowls — Creamy Coleslaw is great for picnics.

What goes with coleslaw?

Coleslaw is a great side with grilled meats such as Beef Steak. It also goes well alongside Creamy Sweet Potato Salad with Bacon, Deviled Eggs. and a Garden Salad with Simple Herb Vinaigrette.

Traditional Coleslaw Recipe

This is the coleslaw recipe that I've been making for my family for years. We used to grow a vegetable garden before we starting traveling for much of the summer. One year, we had a lot of cabbages, and I started to work with this recipe.

It turns out well made with my One-Minute Homemade Mayonnaise, pure maple syrup, and fresh lemon juice.

top-down view of three bowls of coleslaw — This coleslaw recipe can be prepared ahead and kept in the refrigerator.

Basic Coleslaw Recipe

At its simplest, this recipe is cabbage and creamy dressing. However, I like to add a little sweet onion for interesting flavour. I usually add a carrot for more complexity and colour. Then, to make it really special, I use some red cabbage along with the green.

If you're not serving eight, you could still make all of the salad dressing, use less vegetable, and store the extra dressing for a few days in the refrigerator. That will save you time when you're ready to make creamy coleslaw again.

Or, simply store leftover, prepared coleslaw in the refrigerator for a day or two.

red and green cabbage, lemon, carrot, onion, mayonnaise, maple syrup — Creamy Coleslaw Ingredients

Creamy Coleslaw Preparation

While you can chop your vegetables by hand, I love that this salad is so easy to make in a food processor. As you'll see in the video below, I begin by chopping the onion. Then, without even removing the onion, I replace the chopping blade with a shredding disk for the carrot. After that, I simply turn the disk over to the slicing side for the cabbage.

If I'm making a small amount of salad, it will all fit in the bowl of my food processor. For the full recipe, I need to empty the bowl once during processing.