Vietnamese-Inspired Cabbage Salad With Tofu

By Melissa Clark

Updated Aug. 30, 2025

Vietnamese-Inspired Cabbage Salad With Tofu
Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Spencer Richards.
Total Time
30 minutes
Rating
5(1,205)
Comments
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Cabbages are the quintessential storage vegetable. You can cut a cabbage in quarters or thirds and use one piece at a time. The other hunks will keep, wrapped well in the vegetable crisper, for at least two weeks, and potentially a lot longer if you mist them with water every once in a while. That means you can buy one large cabbage and use it several times for different recipes, experiencing the deceptively versatile vegetable many ways. Fried tofu turns this Vietnamese-inspired slaw into more of a meal.

Featured in: A Good Appetite: Cabbage Flexes Its Muscles Three Ways

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Ingredients

Yield:4 servings
  • 3½tablespoons soy sauce
  • 2teaspoons light brown sugar
  • 2teaspoons Asian fish sauce
  • Zest and juice of 1 lime
  • ½jalapeño, seeded and minced
  • 1garlic clove, minced
  • 4tablespoons peanut oil
  • ½pound extra-firm tofu, cut into slabs, ¾ inch thick
  • 6cups shredded cabbage
  • 1large carrot, grated
  • ⅓cup coarsely chopped roasted, salted peanuts, plus more to serve
  • 2tablespoons chopped cilantro, plus more to serve
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (4 servings)

290 calories; 22 grams fat; 4 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 10 grams monounsaturated fat; 7 grams polyunsaturated fat; 16 grams carbohydrates; 5 grams dietary fiber; 7 grams sugars; 11 grams protein; 1093 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    To make vinaigrette, whisk together 2 tablespoons soy sauce, brown sugar, 1½ teaspoons fish sauce, lime zest and juice, jalapeño and garlic. Whisk in 3 tablespoons peanut oil.

  2. Step 2

    Pat the tofu dry with paper towels. Heat the remaining 1 tablespoon peanut oil in a large skillet, preferably nonstick. When it shimmers, add the tofu. Cook 3 minutes without moving, until golden brown on the bottom. Flip and cook 2 minutes more. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate. In a small bowl, whisk together the remaining 1½ tablespoons soy sauce and ½ teaspoon fish sauce. Move the tofu to a cutting board, and brush both sides of each slice generously with this mixture. Cut tofu into bite-size pieces.

  3. Step 3

    In a large bowl, toss together tofu, cabbage, carrot, peanuts, cilantro and vinaigrette. Garnish with more peanuts and cilantro.

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Ratings

5 out of 5
1,205 user ratings
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Comments

Autumncook

Nice and crunchy. For the amount of cabbage, I would suggest adding the full 1 lb. pkg of tofu. It will be well incorporated. Just double the sauce for the tofu.

Margaret

I added a used sesame oil instead of peanut oil because it's what I had on hand. Also added a little bit of peanut butter and sambal oelek and sprinkled with sesame seeds. Delicious!

Marni

Delicious! I've made this twice and served this over softened pad thai noodles. A big hit in my house with kids and grown-ups alike.

Wanderlust

This is so delicious, mostly because of the dressing. I omitted the tofu and used it as a side salad to the NYT recipe for gochujang chicken and butternut squash. The only other change I made is to use half peanut oil and half toasted sesame oil. Next time I’ll double the dressing just to have more of it.

Debbie R

This is wonderful. It’s worthy it to shred cabbage in a food processor. Although I bought some pre-shredded cabbage when I took a closer look I changed my mind. One tip I followed was using all of the tofu with a bit more dressing.

Maria

Bravo Melissa! I made it pretty much as written with only two TBS of oil in the dressing, one of them sesame, and used 1 lb tofu. It was flavored very much like a Vietnamese salad, fresh and balanced.

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