Savory and a little sweet, this celery slaw gets extra crunch from apple and carrot with a tangy flavor bump from fresh crumbles of blue cheese.
Just When You Think Coleslaw Can’t Get Any Better … It Does!
For all you coleslaw purists out there, yes, I know, this is not a traditional coleslaw.
But if you’re hunting for a little something special, this celery slaw with blue cheese fits the bill. It’s fresh and crunchy, savory and sweet, and wildly quick to make, and features ingredients that are seasonal no matter what time of year.
So, how do you make classic coleslaw even better? Add more spunk — think blue cheese and a tangy vinaigrette — with celery, carrots, and apples adding more crunch to munch in your coleslaw mix.
Enjoy!
Heidi’s Tips for Recipe Success
Use store-bought coleslaw mix or shred your own. I take the easy route and use bagged slaw mix. If you want to shred your own, shred or thinly slice the cabbage into nice, thin strips.
Thinly slice or julienne the other crunchy vegetables. This salad tastes best when you get bits of bites of all the ingredients at once. Use a julienne peeler or a chef’s knife to thinly slice the celery, carrot, green onion, and apple.
Buy a good quality blue cheese and crumble it yourself. Already crumbled cheeses are dry and bland and don’t have nearly the flavor freshly crumbled do.
What’s in This Recipe?
The full recipe, with amounts, can be found in the recipe card below.
- Coleslaw mix — Can be subbed with finely shredded green cabbage. You’ll need roughly 7 ounces total.
- Celery — The thinner you can slice the celery, the better.
- Green onion — Adds just the right amount of pungent onion flavor without overpowering the salad like yellow onion would.
- Carrot — If you have a julienne peeler, use that. Otherwise the largest side of a box grater works great for shredded the carrot.
- Apple — Pink Lady apples are my favorite here because they’re sweet, tart, and super crunchy.
- Blue cheese — Adds a sharp tanginess to the celery apple slaw.
- Tangy vinaigrette — This dressing is oil and vinegar-based, keeping the salad flavors light and bright, not thick or heavy. It’s made with simple blend of canola oil (use any neutral oil you like), white vinegar, celery seed, and a pinch of sugar.
- Kosher salt and black pepper — Always season your slaw to taste.
How to Make Celery Slaw
- Toss together the slaw fixings. In a large mixing bowl, add the sliced veggies, apple, and blue cheese crumbles. Toss to combine.
- In a small bowl or jar with a fitted lid, mix the dressing ingredients together with a few of the blue cheese crumbles, then dress the coleslaw, toss, and serve.
- Reserve some of the blue cheese crumbles to sprinkle on top. Presentation is just about as important as taste, where a few crumbles of cheese on top of the salad give eaters a preview of what’s in store.
Ingredient Additions and Substitutions
- Instead of blue cheese, try creamy gorgonzola, sharp white cheddar cheese, or a spunky feta cheese
- Add chopped nuts like toasted pecans, walnuts, sunflower seed, or pepitas
- Add shredded purple cabbage to the mix
- Try any variety of apple
- Add thinly sliced red bell pepper for a sweet bite
If you make this recipe, please let me know! Leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating on this recipe below and leave a comment, take a photo and tag me on Instagram with #foodiecrusheats.
Tangy Celery Slaw Recipe
PrintIngredients
Slaw
- 4 cups coleslaw mix (or shredded cabbage; about 7 ounces)
- 4 ribs celery , very thinly sliced
- 4 green onions
- 1 carrot , thinly julienned or shredded
- 1 small apple , cored and thinly sliced
- ½ cup crumbled blue cheese
Dressing
- ½ cup canola oil
- 2 tablespoons white vinegar
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon celery seed
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, toss the coleslaw mix, celery, green onion, carrot, apple, and blue cheese.
- In a small bowl, mix the canola oil, vinegar, sugar, celery seed, kosher salt, and black pepper. Pour the dressing over the slaw mixture and toss to coat.
- Taste for seasoning, and sprinkle with more blue cheese and green onion for a pretty topping.
- The slaw can be served immediately but tastes best with about 30 minutes resting time for the flavors to come together.
Notes
Nutrition
What to Serve With Celery Slaw
Storage Instructions
Blue cheese celery slaw tastes best after a 30-minute rest in the fridge before serving it but can be stored for up to 4 days. This recipe uses very hardy ingredients, so the slaw won’t start to actively wilt until day 3(ish).
More Crunchy Slaw Recipes
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Mary
this was a big hit for our bbq dinner. I didn’t have celery seed but I had some fresh garden dill so added a bunch of that. so delicious.
Mary, that’s a great substitution idea. Happy to hear you enjoyed it, thanks for the comment!
Heidi
This was so delicious my husband and I ate The Leftovers for lunch the next day, and I made it again the following day for dinner!
Awesome, so glad you liked it my fellow Heidi. :)
Jan
This slaw was excellent. The celery supplied a good crunch. We like blue cheese, so the flavors fit our taste preference. It came together easy and so quick. The blue cheese especially complimented our fall meal of pork chops and baked sweet potatoes. Thanks for sharing this recipe.
Hayley
Thank you so much Jan, we’re happy you enjoyed it!
Connie K
Problem with receipe you state pecans in the instructions but no were do you mention pecans in the ingredients list. Why is that.?
Hayley
Hi Connie. We don’t use pecans in this recipe, so that’s a typo (though we do suggest them as an addition that would be yummy). Thanks for pointing this out, we’ve corrected the instructions!