Last Updated on April 15, 2022 by Karen
This Thai-inspired salad is packed with crunchy vegetables and drizzled with a creamy peanut dressing. It’s refreshing, nutritious, and delicious!
Peanut based salad dressings and dipping sauces are very common in Southeast Asian cuisine. My mom and my grandmother would make an Indonesian salad called gado gado, which is basically bean sprouts, cucumber, fried tofu, and hard boiled eggs, all mixed together with a dressing made with fried peanuts and lots of aromatic spices. The crunch factor makes it so satisfying to eat. Needless to say, my favorite type of salad usually involves something crunchy!
The heat wave is maxing out over here and I’m doing everything I can to cool down. Here’s a Thai-inspired salad that combines cooling, crunchy vegetables with creamy, sweet-n-spicy peanut dressing. It’s such a delicious and refreshing combination!
Not to mention, this recipe used up all of the miscellaneous vegetables I had in my fridge – red cabbage, carrots, scallions, and cucumber (leftover from making infused water last week). Feel free to use your favorite crunchy vegetables! Red peppers, sugar snap peas, and radishes would be perfect in here as well. Note that this salad can be served in smaller portions as a side dish, or you can top it with a protein (such as chicken, tofu or hard-boiled eggs, if you’re vegetarian) and you’ve got a fresh, nutritious main course.
Thai Crunch Salad with Peanut Dressing
Ingredients
For the dressing:
- 3 tbsps creamy peanut butter
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 tbsp reduced-sodium soy sauce
- 2 tbsps rice vinegar
- 1 tsp palm or brown sugar
- ¼ tsp red pepper flakes
- Hot water
For the salad:
- 1 small head red cabbage shredded
- 2 medium carrots peeled and shredded
- 1 cucumber halved lengthwise, seeded and sliced
- 2 scallions thinly sliced
- ½ cup roasted cashews
Instructions
- In a bowl, whisk together peanut butter, oil, soy sauce, rice vinegar, sugar, and red pepper flakes. Slowly whisk in hot water until you achieve desired consistency.
- Arrange cabbage, carrots, cucumber, scallions, and cashews on a platter. Drizzle peanut dressing generously over vegetables and serve.
I love peanut dressings too! Had a similar salad at a restaurant recently – looking forward to try this recipe
Not a fan. This just tastes like liquid peanut butter.
I made your recipe three times and my family absolutely LOVES it! This is the only way I can get my kids to eat cabbage and cucumbers. Like Jay said, it is like liquid peanut butter but in a good way (lots of thai peanut dressing Ive tried is like that) I also add some fried chow mein noodles..so, so good!
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