Southern-Style Coleslaw a.k.a. Purple & Gold LSU Coleslaw

Mention, “cabbage” and I’m ready to try a new recipe. I love cabbage. My new coleslaw recipe is a Southern twist on classic coleslaw. The cabbage salad is colorful, sweet and every bite includes a new flavor pop — bell peppers, yellow and green onion, cabbage plus a little yellow mustard and sugar. It is delicious! The coleslaw is a copycat recipe of the one served at Mike Anderson’s Seafood Restaurant, a favorite seafood restaurant which is close to the LSU campus. The restaurant’s coleslaw recipe includes both head green cabbage and purple cabbages. I added carrots which gives the coleslaw a a touch of purple and gold — which are LSU’s colors. The Mike Anderson’s Seafood Restaurant recipe includes a “surprise” ingredient — garlic. Different, for sure, but if you like garlic, then this coleslaw is one to try. However, I didn’t think that the garlic added to the appeal of the recipe. After making this colesaw several times, I just left the garlic out of the recipe. The colorful coleslaw is perfectly fine!

Recipe Inspiration

It all started when a group of friends got into a discussion on what to do with the remaining 1/2 head of cabbage left from another recipe. Somehow, things never seem to come out even when cooking for two people at home. Bonnie volunteered that her favorite way to fix cabbage was the copycat recipe of coleslaw served at the popular seafood restaurant close to the LSU campus — Mike Anderson’s Seafood.

The recipe is published in the restaurant’s cookbook. I decided to try it out and have made the recipe several times now. Each time I changed it up, trying to get a finished coleslaw recipe which worked for me. This included cutting down on the 15 cups of shredded cabbage called for in the original recipe.

Mike Anderson’s Seafood Restaurant

Mike Anderson’s Seafood Restaurant is respected and popular seafood restaurant in Baton Rouge. The namesake restaurant was founded in 1975 by an all-American LSU football player, Mike Anderson. The former football player seems to have found a winning combination in the restaurant industry as his restaurant has survived and thrived. There is always a crowd at this restaurant. Plan to stand in line. Giant seafood platters, catfish topped with etouffee, raw oysters on the half shell are some of the menu items for which this restaurant is known. We enjoy going to this restaurant and always come home with a huge plate of leftovers.

Here’s my “Purple & Gold LSU Coleslaw” which I made using very finely shredded cabbage. It is one of my variations of the restaurant’s coleslaw recipe.

Recipe

My copycat recipe is very easy to prepare, although quite a bit of chopping and shredding is involved. Allow plenty of time to do these tasks. To make things easier, I sometimes get started a day or two ahead of time.

For efficiency in food preparation, I shred the entire cabbage head, using my food processsor. Then I transfer the cabbages to zip lock bags and store in the crisper drawer of my refrigerator. This chopped cabbage will stay fresh for several days. I can take out just what is needed for a recipe

Although you can purchase bags of shredded coleslaw cabbage mix, it is much more economical to shred your own ingredients. A head of green gabbage — which weights from 3 to 3-1/2 pounds — easily makes 10 cups or more of shredded cabbage. The purple cabbage weighted over 2 pounds which yielded 4 cups; I had alot of cabbage!

My food processor has two shredding attachments — a fine angel-consistency shredder and an attachment which gives coursely shredded cabbage. I have used both attachments to shred the cabbage and make coleslaw and both work fine. The photo on the left is the finer angel-consistency and the photo on the right is coursely shredded cabbage.

Recipe ingredients for homemade coleslaw blend

Here are the ingredients for my cabbage coleslaw blend: both green and purple cabbage, bell pepper, carrots, both yellow and green onions.

To make the recipe, I get everything chopped up, storing extra cabbage in ziplock bags. This recipe uses five cups of shredded green cabbage (1/2 half of a head) and one cup of purple cabbage (1/4 of a head.) Mix up the shredded cabbage and other ingredients in one or two large bowls. Toss to combine the ingredinets.

For this task, I place my hand inside a zip lock bag and toss the ingredients together. Why use a zip lock bag? Because, I can never find my plastic cook’s gloves. Since we’re dealing with raw salad ingredients which won’t be cooked, this just seems like common sense to me to use a glove. I multi-task in the kitchen — going from cooking to cell phone to computer to opening the door — I like food safety.

Classic Southern Coleslaw Dressing

The dressing used in the Mike Anderson’s Seafood Restaurant recipe is considered to be a classic southern-stye coleslaw dressing. It includes mayonnaise as well as both sugar and yellow mustard. The Mike Anderson’s recipe also includes garlic — I decided that this ingredient is optional. I use the Blue Plate Mayonnaise brand because it is made with soy oil — this has a distinctively taste and adds to the flavor of the coleslaw.

To make the dressing, simply mix up the ingredients in a small bowl. Add a small amount of milk as needed to thin the dressing. It is best to make the dressing ahead of time and let it chill to blend the flavors.

When you are ready to serve, mix the coleslaw blend with the dressing. Serve cold.

Even though I scaled back on the ingredients from the original restaurant recipe, this recipe still makes a large batch of coleslaw; easily enough to serve eight people. It is not difficult to reduce things further, and mix only enough coleslaw blend with dressing for your meal.

This coleslaw is a perfect accompaniment for a BBQ chicken of fried fish meal. Most seafood restaurants in the South offer coleslaw with their seafood platters. So, now we have the real — but adapted — copycat recipe. Enjoy!