Halloween Salad: Cabbage, Carrot, Raisin, Pecan Salad with Honey Mustard Vinaigrette
The perfect Halloween salad that is as tasty as it is colorful. It’s bold, sweet, salty, and has texture for days. The dressing brings the perfect amount of zing that balances the sweeter components.
Heads up: This is a honey mustard vinaigrette and not the more common honey mustard which has a mayonnaise base. The vinaigrette version is more subtle on the mustard which allows all of the salad flavors to shine.
Honey Mustard Vinaigrette Ingredients
1 ½ c avocado oil
¼ c honey
½ c red wine vinegar
½ c Dijon mustard
Honey Mustard Vinaigrette Directions
In a jar that has a tight fitting lid, add 1 ½ c avocado oil, ¼ c honey, ½ c red wine vinegar, ½ c Dijon mustard. Close the lid and shake until incorporated.
Halloween Salad Ingredients
1 purple cabbage (about 40 ounces)
2 c raisins
3 c shredded carrots
3 c roasted pecans
1 ¼ c Honey Mustard Vinaigrette
Halloween Salad Directions
Cut the cabbage in half pole to pole. Cut out the core. Lay the cabbage half with cut side up. You’ll see a solid piece at the base of the cabbage. Take a sharp knife and cut downward on an angle at the edge of the solid piece toward the center. Remove the core. You can roast it.
Flip the cabbage to cut side down with the core hole side facing you. Slice it thinly then turn the cabbage and slice across. Cut it whatever size you like — I do it in about 1” strips. I like it to be small enough that you don’t need to cut the salad before eating it and you can get all ingredients on the fork at once.
Put the cut cabbage in a large bowl. Top with 2 c raisins, 3 c shredded carrots, and 3 c roasted pecans. Mix with your hands or salad tongs until incorporated.
To dress it. I normally like to dress this type of cabbage salad before portioning it so the cabbage absorbs the flavors and softens. However the acid in the dressing brightens the purple color in the cabbage and dulls the orange of the salads. So if you’re making it for Halloween, I recommend not doing that. You’ll need 1 ¼ c of the Honey Mustard Vinaigrette for the entire salad.
Notes: Use dijon mustard. While I love a good stone ground or Creole mustard, you want a more subtle flavor for this salad. I didn’t try it with yellow mustard, but I think it would be too vinegary with a less complex flavor.
You can use green cabbage when it isn’t Halloween season.
