Keto Recipe: Red Cabbage Goat Cheese Salad

When Bill and I were in Mexico, we stumbled across a red cabbage salad at one of the buffets.  He tried it and loved it!  We, of course, broke down the ingredients as best we could and confirmed that yes, it did appear to be keto friendly.  It had goat cheese in it, which he loved and which I did not.  But, I had to admit it did give the salad a tangy flair.  When we came home, we looked up a recipe and this one is as close as we can get to what we ate in Mexico.  So, here is our new keto recipe for red cabbage goat cheese salad.

Is Cabbage Okay for a Keto Recipe?

Cabbage is an often overlooked recipe that is keto-friendly.  One cup of shredded red cabbage (about 70 grams) has 22 calories, no fat, 3 grams of net carbs, and 1 gram of protein.  Those net carbs are mostly natural sugars, so it’s easy to bring out the natural sweetness of the vegetable in your dishes.

There are tons of nutrients in cabbage!  The old saying goes that the more vibrant the colour, the better for you it is.  This is no exception.  There are high levels of antioxidants in cabbage, which help reduce the risks of cancer, osteoporosis, and heart disease.  It contains something called anthocyanins, which increase blood flow to the brain.  What this means is eating cabbage can help with your attention, language, and memory.  And, of course, it contains our good friend fiber, which helps with digestion and keeping us feeling full.

Choosing and Keeping your Head of Red Cabbage

According to Web MD, don’t worry about a wilted leaf or a blotch on the other part of the cabbage.  Like all of us, it’s what’s inside that counts.  To pick a cabbage, look for ones that feel firm and heavy for the size of it.  If it’s a red cabbage, it should be a vibrant red colour.   To keep it, wrap it in plastic wrap and keep it in your refrigerator’s crisper drawer.  They keep longer than a lot of other vegetables, which is another plus.

Our New Keto Recipe Ingredients

Besides the keto-friendly cabbage, the other ingredients are also keto staples.  You’ll include bacon, goat cheese, extra virgin olive oil, and red wine vinegar.  I had to look up the vinegar to make sure it was keto-friendly because I don’t often use it.  Turns out, it really has no macros to speak of.  In one tablespoon, there are no significant carbs, fat, or proteins.  But it does have some good minerals and nutrients in it.  

Directions for the Red Cabbage Goat Cheese Salad

1. Cook the bacon in small, bite-sized pieces.
2. Slice the green onion.
3. Chop the cabbage into bite-sized pieces.
4. Whisk together the olive oil, red wine vinegar, and garlic in a frying pan on medium high heat for about 15 seconds.  This is your dressing.
5. Add the cabbage to the frying pan.  Cook about 3 minutes, until the cabbage is starting to wilt but is still a bit crisp.  Stir often to coat the cabbage in the dressing.
6. Put the cabbage and dressing into a bowl and add salt and pepper to taste.
7. Let cool about 5 minutes.  Then stir in the green onion.
8. Crumble the goat cheese and add to the bowl.
9. Add the cooked bacon (now cooled) to the bowl.
10. Stir together and serve.

Nutritional Information about this New Keto Recipe

This recipe makes two side salads.  If you serve it with a nice, fatty meat, it makes a great keto meal!  One side salad, using the ingredients we had on hand, had about 340 calories.  83% of those calories came from fat, 5% from carbs, and 12% from protein.  Remember though, always look at your own ingredient labels for accurate numbers, because every brand is a little different. 

We hope you enjoy this new recipe and if you make it even better with some adjustments, let us know!  We like sharing keto recipes!  Apparently, some people use bacon fat with the olive oil to make up the right amount of dressing.  That would make it even more keto.  We just weren’t sure what it would do to the tang of the overall salad.  But, hey, bacon always makes things better, right?

Wendy