RECIPE: Freezer Cole Slaw - Really!

When I was a little girl, my Poppy (my grandfather) made the best cole slaw. He used vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper. I love cole slaw, but of course, my husband does not. He'll eat raw cabbage, but if you combine it with something else, he turns his nose up, go figure!

Last year some time, I found this recipe for a Freezer Cole Slaw. After reading it I thought this would be a great way for me to have individual servings of cole slaw. So today I'm giving it a try. I have tweaked the original recipe a little bit. Here is what I did:

Freezer Cole Slaw

1 large head of cabbage, shredded
1/4 cup salt

In a large bowl, add cabbage and salt and enough water to cover the cabbage. Let the cabbage soak for 1 hour. After an hour, thoroughly drain and squeeze any excess moisture from the cabbage. According to Elizabeth, this will help keep the cabbage crisp when it thaws.



In the meantime, make the dressing:
1/4 cup water
1 cup Apple Cider vinegar
2 cups granulated sugar
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon onion powder


In a medium sauce pan, combine first 4 ingredients and bring to a boil. Boil for 1 minute thereafter remove from heat to cool completely. Approxiamately 1 hour (about the same amount of time as your cabbage is in the brine.) Once it has cooled, stir in 1 teaspoon onion powder.




While the sauce is cooling and cabbage is "brining", grate a large carrot.


When the cabbage is ready, combine it with the shredded carrot. Pour the cooled dressing over the cabbage mixture and stir to combine. (I only needed 1/2 of the dressing. If I make this again I will halve the dressing recipe so I don't waste any leftovers. I did freeze these leftovers to see if they will thaw for another batch of cole slaw later on.) Serve it as is or pour equal amounts into freezer storage baggies or containers. Make sure you label the containers :) To serve the cole slaw, thaw it in the refrigerator overnight.


Thanks Elizabeth for your creative recipe! Who would have ever thought you could freeze cole slaw! She also suggested looking up recipes for freezer cucumber pickles and I found one I'm going to try with our cucumbers from our little garden. But more about that later on...

As you can see in the above picture, I did save some out to top my BBQ sandwich for lunch. I really like creamy cole slaw, so I stirred in 1 teaspoon of mayonnaise. The texture of the cole slaw is very similar to sauerkraut or kim-chi. I didn't mind it because the flavors were definitely spot on for classic cole slaw.

Enjoy!