This Thai-inspired Crunch Salad is full of color and bold fresh flavors. Fresh herbs, shredded cabbage, and crunchy bell peppers all come together with a creamy peanut dressing. This easy recipe is the perfect summer salad and goes great with your favorite protein, like chicken, fish or even tofu for a meat-free option!

Delicious Thai Inspired Crunch Salad with Creamy Peanut Dressing

Umm, let’s talk about this salad, ok? It’s delicious, and perfect, and crunch, and creamy, and just everything that salads should be from here on out. 

I love a big salad with fresh greens and all the toppings, but sometimes you just need to take a different spin on the traditional salad situation. This Thai-inspired Crunch Salad with Creamy Peanut Dressing is the spin you need.

Watch How to Make This Recipe

This salad is more similar to a slaw than a traditional salad with mixed greens or lettuce. It’s packed with crunchy fresh veggies, lots of fresh herbs, and toasted almonds for even more flavor.

thai crunch salad ingredients

Thai Inspired Crunch Salad Ingredients

Bell Peppers: For this recipe, sliced red, yellow, or orange bell peppers work best.

Carrots: Keep things easy and use pre-shredded carrots.

Cabbage: This salad uses a combination of both red and green cabbage. Feel free to use just one variety if you need to.

Cilantro and Green Onion: Fresh herbs and green onion add so much flavor to the salad.

Sliced Almonds: These add a little extra flavor and crunch.

creamy peanut dressing in mason jar

Creamy Peanut Dressing

Once you have all of the salad ingredients prepped it’s time to make the star of the show – creamy peanut dressing. The creamy peanut dressing takes this salad to the next level. It’s creamy, delicious, just a little sweet, full of flavor and I promise you’ll want to eat it by the spoonful.

Thankfully, this dressing is so easy to make. It’s made with simple ingredients but adds just the right flavor to all of the fresh veggies in the salad.

Here’s what you need: 

  • Creamy all-natural peanut butter
  • Honey
  • Sriracha
  • Rice vinegar
  • Coconut aminos
  • Fish sauce
  • Lime juice
  • Cilantro

To make the dressing all you have to do is add all of the ingredients to a high powered blender and blend until smooth and creamy. If your dressing is a little thick, you can add a little water or lime juice to thin it out a bit.

thai crunch salad in bowl

How to Make a Thai Inspired Crunch Salad

Step One: Slice and prep all of your veggies and add them to a large mixing bowl. Add the chopped cilantro, green onion, and sliced almonds as well.

Step Two: Add all of the dressing ingredients to a high-powered blender and blend until smooth and creamy.

Step Three: Drizzle a few spoonfuls of the dressing over the salad and toss until well coated. Feel free to add as much or as little dressing as you would like. Finish the salad with more chopped cilantro and green onion.

dressing being poured over salad

How to Serve the Salad

One of my favorite ways to serve this salad is on the side of a piece of crispy roasted salmon with white or cauliflower rice. This salad goes really well with seafood, chicken, pork, or even beef.

It would also be a great side dish to bring to a cookout or potluck this summer! The creamy peanut dressing has just the right combo of sweetness and acidity which I think works really well with grilled or smoked meats.

chopped salad in bowl

Tips, Tricks, and FAQs

  • This salad is hearty and gets even better as it sits which makes it a great option to meal prep. It should last up to three days in an air-tight container in the fridge.
  • You will likely have leftover dressing. Use it as a dip for fresh veggies or drizzle it over mixed greens to make another flavorful salad!
  • If your dressing is too thick, feel free to thin it out a bit with a little water or extra lime juice.
  • If you need to keep this salad Paleo-friendly, you can use almond butter instead of peanut butter for the dressing.

thai crunch salad in bowls

More Delicious Recipes to Try

Thai Chopped Chicken Salad

Chili Lime Shrimp Salad with Sweet & Spicy Guacamole 

Berry Chicken Salad with Honey Lime Vinaigrette 

Basil Pesto Chicken Salad

I hope you give this Thai-Inspired Crunch Salad a try! This makes a quick and easy breakfast or snack that everyone will love!

If you do give this recipe a try, I want to know! Leave a comment with a star rating below. You can also snap a photo & tag @allthehealthythings on INSTAGRAM. Your reviews help support All the Healthy Things and make it possible for me to continue to create the recipes you know and love.

Print

Thai Crunch Salad with Creamy Peanut Dressing

  • Author: Ashlea Carver
  • Prep Time: 10 minutes
  • Cook Time: 0 minutes
  • Total Time: 10 minutes
  • Yield: 6 1x
  • Category: Dinner
  • Method: No Cook
  • Cuisine: Thai-Inspired
  • Diet: Gluten Free
Units
  • Author: Ashlea Carver
  • Prep Time: 10 minutes
  • Cook Time: 0 minutes
  • Total Time: 10 minutes
  • Yield: 6 1x
  • Category: Dinner
  • Method: No Cook
  • Cuisine: Thai-Inspired
  • Diet: Gluten Free

Ingredients

For the Salad

  • 2 cups shredded red cabbage
  • 2 cups shredded green cabbage
  • 1 cup sliced red bell pepper
  • 1 cup sliced yellow bell pepper
  • 1 cup shredded carrots
  • 1/3 cup sliced green onions
  • 1/3 cup chopped cilantro
  • 1/3 cup unsalted roasted peanuts

For the Dressing

  • 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
  • 1/4 cup lime juice
  • 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
  • 1/4 teaspoon fish sauce
  • 2 tablespoon coconut aminos
  • 2 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
  • 2 tablespoon sriracha
  • 2 tablespoon honey or maple syrup
  • 2 tablespoon chopped cilantro
  • 1 teaspoon salt

Method

  1. Combine all of the dressing ingredients in a high-powered blender and blend until smooth and creamy.
  2. Add all of the salad ingredients to a large bowl. Drizzle your desired amount of the peanut dressing over the salad. You’ll probably have a bit leftover and that’s ok. Toss the salad until well combined and coated in the dressing. Enjoy!
instagram logo

Did you make this recipe?

Share a photo and tag us — we can't wait to see what you've made!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe rating 5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star

37 Comments

  1. This was so good! The sauce was just delicious. I love how you could make it ahead and it was even better as leftovers. Thank you!






    1. Natalie Perkins (ATHT) says:

      I’m so glad you loved this one, Kaydence! Thanks for leaving a review!

  2. Delicious salad, thank you for this recipe! I do have a question though. I see edamame on most pictures in the recipe, but it’s nowhere to be found in the text or ingredient list down below 😅 am I missing something? I added edamame into my salad cause I *love* edamame, but this just left me really curious haha






  3. Looks tasty! What would be a good substitute for fish sauce (for vegetarians)?

    1. Ashlea Carver says:

      Hi, Joy! I would just leave it out and add a bit of extra salt if needed!

      1. Salad is amazing, I didn’t modify anything. This dressing and combination of the veggies..WOW!!
        Will be sharing with others, a must try. Thank You!!






  4. Tasty salad but the dressing is too salty. Will definitely cut back on one of the sources next time.

    1. Ashlea Carver says:

      Hi, Karen! so glad you liked the salad! and yes – feel free to adjust the salt to your liking. Everyone’s tastebuds are different so some won’t find this too salty at all.

  5. This is phenomenal! I added chicken so that I could serve it as a meal and it was incredible.






  6. This salad is so delicious! Crunchy, full of flavors, and the recipe is pretty flexible. We didn’t have enough peanut butter so did about half PB with half tahini and also had to sub in some lemons for the lime because we didn’t have enough limes. It was still delish! I added some chicken and noodles and had plenty of dressing to cover all of it.






  7. Easy and delicious!!! The sauce is so good!!!






  8. I’ve been making this salad on a regular basis for the last year or so- I think the first month, we ate it every day. It is still on our regular rotation amd keeps wonderfully for meal prepping. but has also become our go to potluck dish. Everyone loves it! The only changes we’ve made is to use cashews instead of almonds, and garlic chilli sauce instead of sriracha. Best salad ever.






    1. Ashlea Carver says:

      thanks for sharing, Justine! I’m so glad you loved the recipe!

  9. Incredible peanut dressing! Will make this over and over. I added more maple syrup & a tiny bit of grated ginger. Thank you for a great salad recipe!






    1. Natalie Perkins (ATHT) says:

      I’m so happy you made this recipe work for you, Mimi! Thank you for sharing!

  10. Catherine says:

    This was delicious. So easy to make, complex flavors, and I just wanted to dip every veggie I had in the sauce!! Will be adding this to the rotation!






    1. Ashlea Carver says:

      So glad you enjoyed it, Catherine!

    1. Ashlea Carver says:

      Thanks, Kiersten! I’m so glad you enjoyed it!