Cabbage Slaw for Camp
Vinegar-mustard slaw built from shelf-stable mayo packets and a bag of shredded cabbage. No stove.
- calories
- 110
- weight
- 3.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 31
- protein
- 1 g
- serves
- 10, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 0 min
- total time
- 10 min
- water
- none
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Lunch
- Dinner
- No cook
- Cooler only
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Day hike
- Vegetarian
- Gluten free
- Nut free
- Eat in the bag
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Dump and stir
Ingredients
| Shredded cabbage and carrot mix | 24 oz | bagged slaw mix keeps a week in a cooler |
|---|---|---|
| Mayonnaise | 1 cup | single-serve packets, no fridge needed until opened |
| White granulated sugar | 1/4 cup | |
| White vinegar | 4 tsp | in a small leakproof bottle |
| Dry mustard powder | 1/4 tsp | |
| Salt | 1/4 tsp | |
| Black pepper | a few grinds |
Method
- At home, put the sugar, mustard powder, salt, and pepper in one small bag. That is the whole dry side of the dressing.
- In camp, dump the dry mix into a gallon freezer bag and add the vinegar. Squeeze the bag until the sugar stops feeling gritty.
- Add the mayonnaise packets and work the bag again until the dressing is smooth and pale.
- Add the cabbage mix. Seal out the air and turn the bag over and over until every shred is coated.
- Lay the bag flat in the cooler for at least two hours. Overnight is better.
- Turn the bag once more before serving. Liquid pools at the bottom.
This is a restaurant-style creamy slaw moved into a cooler and a freezer bag. Nothing here needs heat, and nothing needs a bowl. The dressing is dissolved first, before the cabbage goes anywhere near it, because sugar will not dissolve into mayonnaise once the vegetables start pulling water out.
The cooler time is not optional. Cabbage sheds water for the first couple of hours and the dressing thins out into something usable rather than a paste. It also softens the shreds enough to eat next to grilled food. Mayonnaise is the one cooler-dependent item, so if you cannot keep the bag cold, this is not the recipe to bring.
Packing
Dry mix in a snack bag, vinegar in a small bottle, mayo packets loose. The gallon bag is both the mixing bowl and the storage container, so nothing else gets dirty.
Variations
- Swap in 3/4 tsp prepared yellow mustard if you would rather not carry mustard powder.
- Half the sugar makes it sharper and closer to a vinegar slaw.
- Shredded cabbage travels frozen. Pack it as a cooler ice block and shred it the next day.
https://domesticsuperhero.com/chick-fil-a-coleslaw-copycat-recipe