Fancy Pants Coleslaw
A loaded, fancy cole slaw recipe loaded with cheese, bacon, grapes, and sunflower seeds. A great addition to your summer picnic!
We've always been on the fence when it comes to coleslaw – we rarely like store-bought or from-the-deli coleslaws because more often than not, they are absolutely swimming in dressing, which we hate. However, we have always loved from-scratch coleslaws – they’re always much lighter on the dressing and significantly tastier than their store-bought counterparts.
And this particular recipe takes from-scratch coleslaw up a few notches! Not only does it have a great dressing-to-ingredients ratio, but it’s loaded with tons of rich ingredients that make it an absolute star of a side dish, and not at all an afterthought.
We actually found this clipping from an old Taste of Home magazine and set it aside to make over Memorial Day weekend since we were going to be grilling for Sunday dinner. However, when we went to make it, we had misplaced the recipe, or accidentally thrown it away, and could not, for the life of us, find it. So we just winged it – we remembered the basic ingredients and threw it all together for dinner.
While we were eating, our mom, mother-in-law and aunt all asked if the recipe was on the blog because they loved it and wanted to write it down. We told them it wasn’t on there and we didn’t even measure anything! So, a few weeks later, we made it again, measuring everything out, so we could share it with them (and you!). We made it while our husband was outside washing our cars; when he came in we told him it was in the fridge, that we had re-made it to share on the blog. He didn’t know that we hadn’t photographed it yet, and polished it off before we had a chance.
Needless to say, this has become a REALLY popular recipe with our family! We made it a third time a couple of weeks ago, measured and photographed, and here it is, finally!
The original recipe in Taste of Home (which we found in the black hole that has become our side of the office weeks later) called for a combination of green and red grapes, but we keep a stash of red grapes in the house at all times, never green, so we used all red… It also called for blue cheese, but there are only one or two people in our family who like blue cheese, so we subbed aged cheddar – it still crumbled nicely and has a sharp flavor (you could also use feta!)… And finally, we used sunflower seeds instead of almonds since we’ve been keeping things pretty much nut-free since Joseph’s allergy diagnosis.
As you can see, there is TONS of room for playing around with this recipe to suit your individual tastes or seasonal flavors. It makes a great side dish for a summer picnic, or even to keep in the fridge for a speedy and straightforward lunch!
Four years ago: Banana Split Ice Cream Cake
Five years ago: Lego Batman Birthday Cake
Nine years ago: Breakfast Scones
Fancy Pants Coleslaw
Yield: 6 to 8 servings A loaded cole slaw recipe loaded with cheese, bacon, grapes, and sunflower seeds. A great addition to your summer picnic!- 16 ounce (453.59 g) bag coleslaw mix
- 3 ounces (85.05 g) aged cheddar cheese, crumbled
- 4 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
- ½ cup (67 g) sunflower seeds
- 1 cup (151 g) red seedless grapes, halved
- ½ teaspoon (0.5 teaspoon) black pepper
- 1 cup (250 g) coleslaw dressing
- In a large bowl, combine the coleslaw mix, cheese, bacon, sunflower seeds, grapes and black pepper. Drizzle over the coleslaw dressing and gently toss until all of the ingredients are evenly coated.
- Serve immediately or cover and refrigerate for up to 1 day before serving.
Notes
Nutritional values are based on one serving
- Yield: 6 to 8 servings
- Prep: 30 minutes
- Total: 30 minutes
Ingredients
- 16 ounce ( 453.59 g ) bag coleslaw mix
- 3 ounces ( 85.05 g ) aged cheddar cheese, crumbled
- 4 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
- ½ cup ( 67 g ) sunflower seeds
- 1 cup ( 151 g ) red seedless grapes, halved
- ½ teaspoon ( 0.5 teaspoon ) black pepper
- 1 cup ( 250 g ) coleslaw dressing
Method
- In a large bowl, combine the coleslaw mix, cheese, bacon, sunflower seeds, grapes and black pepper. Drizzle over the coleslaw dressing and gently toss until all of the ingredients are evenly coated.
- Serve immediately or cover and refrigerate for up to 1 day before serving.
