Spicy Cabbage Salad with Chickpeas and Potatoes

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A unique and refreshing salad made by tossing crunchy cabbage, salty peanuts, hearty chickpeas, and creamy potatoes with a tangy and spicy dressing made with lemon juice and sambal.

Spicy Cabbage Salad with Chickpeas and Potatoes

A Healthy Salad Chaat

This cabbage salad is more like a chaat salad – a healthy take on chaat.

This is not your typical salad. For starters, it’s spicy. And there are potatoes (potatoes in a salad?!). But trust me, this is a salad that’ll have you and your family/friends talking. And since salads aren’t typically a topic of conversation, you know that means this is one special salad.

Spicy Cabbage Salad with Chickpeas and Potatoes

Speaking of talking about salads…

My friend Vanita made this salad for me a little while back and I was so surprised by how good the salad was that several days later, I was still thinking about the salad (and who thinks about salad? lol), so I asked her for the recipe.

Vanita told me she got it from her sister Shivani who got it from their Babbo aunty.

I mean… talk about talking about salads! This is a salad recipe passed down by word of mouth!

And we all know the best recipes are passed down through word of mouth or email or what’s app (and hopefully, you find an occasional gem here on my blog, lol).

Spicy Cabbage Salad with Chickpeas and Potatoes

I’m somewhat of a salad skeptic. I’ve never really believed people who claim to love salads. I’ve always thought that salads are something you’re supposed to eat, not something you’re supposed to genuinely enjoy. At least, that’s what I thought until I met this salad.

And not to be all hyperbolic about salad but (I will be)… I sort of feel like this salad has changed my world. I’m only now opening my eyes to the world of salad possibilities. For a food blogger, that’s pretty life-changing.

If you’ve browsed any of my previous salad recipes here on the blog (meh, please don’t), you’ll see I once tried to pass an avocado with peanut butter off as a salad (still think it’s good, lol). So… who knows what this means for salad recipes to come on the blog!

Spicy Cabbage Salad with Chickpeas and Potatoes

Not only is this salad special – it’s also simple to make. An easy salad to throw together. Make it with bagged coleslaw mix (though you can also chop cabbage yourself), roasted peanuts, chopped potatoes, cilantro, lemon juice, sambal and cayenne. And chickpeas! If you’ve been following my chickpeas series, this is a great way to use them.

Try this salad and tell me what you think! Also, share your favorite salad combinations with me. I’m ready to become someone who talks about salad.

Spicy Cabbage Salad with Chickpeas and Potatoes

Spicy Cabbage Salad with Chickpeas and Potatoes

Spicy Cabbage Salad with Chickpeas and Potatoes

Spicy Cabbage Salad with Chickpeas and Potatoes

A unique and refreshing salad made by tossing crunchy cabbage, salty peanuts, hearty chickpeas, and creamy potatoes with a tangy and spicy dressing made with lemon juice and sambal.
4.93 from 13 reviews
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Ingredients
 

  • 1 (12 ounce) bag coleslaw mix
  • 1 ½ cups cooked chickpeas or 1 can
  • ½ cup roasted and salted peanuts chopped, plus extra for garnish
  • 1 handful cilantro chopped
  • 2 -3 tablespoons sambal oelek to taste
  • Juice of 1-2 lemons to taste (freshly squeezed!)
  • ½ teaspoon salt to taste
  • ⅛ – ¼ teaspoon cayenne or spicy red mirch to taste
  • 1 (6 – 8) ounce Yukon gold potato, cooked and chopped

Instructions
 

  • Combine all of the ingredients together, except for the potatoes.
  • Gently fold in the potatoes.
  • Taste and adjust spices or sambal or lemon juice if needed.

Notes

  • Here’s a post on how to cook potatoes in an instant pot.
  • This recipe is part of my “chickpea series.” Cook a big batch of dried chickpeas (see this blog post), and try one of my recipes that calls for cooked chickpeas! You can also use canned chickpeas but dried beans taste better.
  • feel free to adjust any of the ingredients to taste – you can’t go wrong. if you like potatoes, add more! same goes for everything else.
Did you make this recipe?Tag @myheartbeets on Instagram and hashtag it #myheartbeets!

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Spicy Cabbage Salad with Chickpeas and Potatoes

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Find out more about my cookbooks Indian Food Under Pressure and South Asian Persuasion.

About Ashley

Hi, I’m Ashley. Thanks for being here! I truly believe that food brings us closer together. Gather around a table with good food and good people, and you’ll have the ingredients you need to create some happy memories. My hope is that you find recipes here that you can’t wait to share with family and friends.

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Comments

  1. Nirmala says

    I’m planning to take this to a pot luck. Can this be made ahead or should it be mixed right before serving?

  2. RaNae says

    Love everything on your blog that I’ve made, and I’ve made a lot of them, plus I love your Indian under pressure book too. One thing on this recipe you might want to make more clear…I shared this with a friend and she thought it read…16 8 ounce potatoes. Rather than one 6-8 ounce potato. She didn’t notice the singular use of the word potato…she texted me before putting her 8 pounds (or however much it ended up being) into the cabbage mix asking if I really had used that many potatoes! We had a very good laugh, but, to save anyone else who sees it the same way, maybe rewrite saying…one 6-8 ounce potato. Rather than using the number 1. Her family ate a lot of leftover potatoes that week. 😂

  3. Neelu says

    5 stars
    I tried this recipe yesterday and really loved the flavor profile. I just doubled the amount of roasted peanuts. Thanks for the recipe.

  4. Mary Grace says

    look forward to trying this… can you tell me a good way to cook dry chickpeas other than instapot?
    thank you

    • Ashley - My Heart Beets says

      You can do it on the stovetop but it’ll take much longer – I’m actually not sure how many hours it’ll take, but hopefully another reader can chime in to help answer your question. Let me know what you think of this recipe when you make it 🙂

  5. Sibi says

    Hi Ashley. This sounds so good, just like a chaat. If I don’t use potatoes, do i need to make adjustments to the measurements to the rest of the ingredients? Sorry, Novice cook, so i need instructions with everything;-)

      • Heather says

        I’m planning on making this tonight to bring to a friend’s house. What is the best way to cook the potato? Boiled, roasted? I can’t quite tell from the pictures. Looking forward to giving this a try!

  6. Cindy says

    5 stars
    Looks like healthy way to keep adding salad, but also has some comfort in there -usually salads are ditched this time of year for a while. Then I remember roasted veg and we are off again-lol! Thank you for this -I am trying it tonight!

  7. Susan says

    Ok – I’m going to try this. I have a feeling I’ll enjoy it because it almost (almost) reads/looks like a chaat. Who wouldn’t want chaat over salad? Lol

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