Elevate Coleslaw With A Few Shakes Of One Savory Seasoning Blend

At its core, coleslaw is pretty basic: Raw, shredded cabbage and a vinegar-based sauce. It's far from boring, though, serving as a blank slate for the creative cook who wants to mix in other ingredients and stir up sauces with fresh flavor profiles. Some of the most exciting results can come from ingredients you don't normally associate with salads at all. Case in point: The beloved everything bagel seasoning.

If it's not already in your cupboard, you can either find this seasoning in stores or make your own everything bagel blend. Its pungent onion flakes and garlic mix with sesame and poppy seeds and coarse salt, creating a complex experience to delight your senses of taste and smell. We've written before about how it can elevate grilled cheese and upgrade burger buns, but there's a good reason it works in coleslaw, too. The flavors are bold enough to pop forward through the vinegary sauce, and the crunchy seeds offer an interesting counterpoint to the shredded cabbage. Since it's not a shy taste, start with a pinch or two so you don't overwhelm the rest of the bowl.

This blend is a good fit for standard cabbage-and-carrot slaws made with creamy or vinegar-based sauces. Here, the onions and garlic mix with the sweetness of carrots much as they do in mirepoix, although the raw veggies make for a fresher profile. You'll find it works for an everyday picnic, paired with sandwiches or hamburgers.

Onions and garlic also work well with other global tastes. For example, imagine a Thai-style salad with red cabbage, green snow peas, cilantro, and shredded ginger, plus a sauce of soy sauce, rice vinegar, lime juice, and the seasoning. The same ingredients might appear in an Asian stir-fry, making them perfectly at home.

Tex-Mex is another likely combo. Add roasted corn, sliced radishes, and cilantro to the cabbage, then douse it in jalapeno-infused vinegar along with a few shakes of everything bagel seasoning. You'll capture fajita flavors, making this salad welcome at your next Taco Tuesday.