Raise your hand if you’re craving something fresh, healthy, and NOT made entirely from butter and/or sugar?
Man I love the holidays but over the past few weeks I have eaten crazy amounts of sugar cookies, plenty of Puppy Chow and boatloads of bark. It’s been fun but right now all I want to do is eat a MASSIVE salad. The little boys and I were at my parent’s house yesterday where I made Lincoln a healthy snack of sliced apples and peanut butter…then sat down and chowed down on Lay’s potato chips. #WHY My point is, unhealthy habits beget unhealthy habits and this freight train needs to be stopped.
Thai Crunch Salad with Peanut Dressing is just the thing to do it!
Watch How to Make It
Crispy coleslaw mix is combined with green onions, red bell pepper, cilantro, peanuts, and chicken then tossed with an easy Thai Peanut Dressing that I had to double the amounts for in the final recipe because I spoon drank too much and didn’t have enough left to dress the salad with.
What can I say, self control is not one of my strengths.
This healthy salad recipe is super crunchy and filling, plus if you’re a fan of mason jar salads – these work beautifully! Scoop several Tablespoons of the dressing into the bottom of a 16oz mason jar then layer in coleslaw > red pepper > chicken > green onions > peanuts > cilantro. Pour onto a plate at lunchtime, and you’re set. Let’s do this!
How to Make Thai Crunch Salad
Start by adding bagged coleslaw mix (green cabbage, red cabbage, and carrots,) chopped cilantro, peanuts, and green onions, plus red bell pepper cut into matchsticks, and shredded chicken breast into a large bowl. I poached my chicken breast for about 10 minutes before shredding, but you can cook it any way you like and/or use rotisserie chicken.
How to Make Peanut Dressing
To a mason jar or small bowl add peanut butter, honey, warm water, gluten-free Tamari, rice vinegar, lime juice, toasted sesame seeds, sesame oil, ground ginger, fresh garlic, salt, and pepper then shake or whisk to combine. Whew! Sounds like a lot of ingredients but I always have everything in the house.
Drizzle the dressing on top then toss well and scoop into two bowls with extra lime wedges for drizzling.
I hope you love this fresh and healthy, yet fun and filling salad – enjoy!
More Fork Busting Salad Recipes
- Big Mac Salad
- Jennifer Aniston Salad
- Italian Sub Salad
- Southwestern Chopped Salad
- Chicken Caesar Pasta Salad
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Thai Crunch Salad with Peanut Dressing
Description
Thai Crunch Salad with Peanut Dressing is a light and healthy salad recipe that's packed with craveable flavor and crunch!
Ingredients
- 3 cups coleslaw mix (green cabbage, red cabbage, carrot mix)
- 1/2 red pepper, sliced into thin matchsticks
- 1 chicken breast, cooked then shredded
- 2 green onions, chopped
- 3 Tablespoons peanuts, finely chopped
- 3 Tablespoons chopped cilantro
- For the Thai Peanut Dressing:
- 4 Tablespoons creamy peanut butter
- 2 Tablespoons honey
- 2 Tablespoons hot water
- 1-1/2 Tablespoons gluten-free Tamari or soy sauce (dish will not be GF if using traditional soy sauce)
- 1 Tablespoon rice vinegar
- 1/2 lime (slice remaining 1/2 lime into wedges)
- 1 teaspoon toasted sesame seeds
- 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
- heaping 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 large or 2 small cloves garlic, pressed or finely minced
- salt and pepper
Directions
- Add ingredients for Thai Peanut Dressing into a mason jar or bowl then shake or whisk to combine. Taste then adjust lime juice for more acid, and/or add water to thin if necessary.
- Add remaining ingredients into a large bowl. Drizzle desired amount of dressing on top then toss well to combine. Scoop into bowls then serve with lime wedges.
Notes
- This recipe would make great mason jar salads! To the bottom of a 16oz mason jar, scoop in several Tablespoons dressing then layer salad ingredients in the order listed in the recipe above (coleslaw mix, red pepper, chicken, etc.)
This recipe is courtesy of Iowa Girl Eats, http://iowagirleats.com.
I followed this recipe fairly closely. I stayed away from adding any additional liquid until it became obvious that without it, the sauce would be too thick. But instead of adding water I added a good sake.
I used the dressing over very thinly sliced red and green cabbage, carrot slivers and small quartered tomatoes. accompanied by lime wedges.
This was the salad bed for home breaded baked
coconut shrimp. Was it good? Hahaha! It was excellent!
That sounds diviiiine – definitely trying the Coconut Shrimp addition sometime! Thanks for the idea, Bil!
Made it without the chicken and will be making again tonight to go with takeout of Thai spicy fried rice to get in more veggies. Delish. This must be about the 50th recipe of yours we’ve made. Combing through your archives to find ones that are easily adjustable to vegan and appreciate that you have many! Thank you for all of your work on these!
I’m so, so glad you’re finding even older recipes to work for your current diet! I call those oldies but goodies!
Can you prepare the dressing a day in advance
Sure!
Thanks for this receipe. I have been using it 2 or 3 times a months for the past several months. Making again tonight so wanted to send my appreciation.
I’m so glad to hear you love this recipe, James! Really appreciate you taking the time to let me know. :)
just had thai peanut slaw YUM. Any banana bread recipes
Please provide nutritional details on crunchy Thai peanut salad Thank you!
Hi Cathy! I recommend a service like MyFitnessPal if you need that information!
This was delicious. I added diced cucumber and air fried some strips of egg roll wrappers and crumbled them in because I wanted a different crunch. Perfect!
Yuuuum – love those additions, Kristie!
This is simple to make and simply delicious!!!
So glad you loved it, Kelli!!
You forgot the wontons that ate shown in the picture in the ingredients
This looks really good. Can you use shrimp in place of the chicken?
Of course!
Super tasty salad! I chopped up the cabbage and carrot because I didn’t have a coleslaw mix handy. Thanks for another winner Kristen!
Love this salad. I make it without chicken for work lunches (mostly because I’m lazy), and it is perfect. I had my 12 year old try a bite and he loved the dressing!
I had just finished an online workout and my body was screaming for some fuel when I saw this recipe pop up in my inbox. Miraculously I had everything I needed on hand from our other meals this week and it came together very fast! This will for sure go into my regular rotation. Thank you!
Oh my gosh, that is awesome!! I’m so glad you liked the recipe, Christy!
It’s rare for a salad to be described as “addictive” but this salad really is! I’ve made this several times, most recently I was out of sesame oil and rice vinegar so I swapped in olive oil and red wine vinegar, and it was still awesome. Thank you for this recipe!
I’m obsessed with this dressing! I’ve made 3x in the last 3 days, along with the salad and it’s to die for! I’ve put the dressing over noodles, grilled salmon, and quinoa as well. The whole thing takes 15 minutes to make. Love. Love!!!
So thrilled to hear that, J!! Thanks so much for your feedback and recipe rating!
Loved this, easy and delicious. My kids loved it too!
Yum! Thanks! Monday nights dinner now planned. ?
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[…] while back, I shared my obsession with Kristin’s Thai Crunch Salad and it’s still a favorite in our house. Though I don’t always take the time to chop […]