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 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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Combine all of the dressing ingredients in a high-powered blender and blend until smooth and creamy.
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!
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
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.
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.
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.
This is so good! I love all the crunchiness and the different textures. I usually add just a little leftover chicken or roast pork on top if I have it. The dressing is to die for. I don’t have coconut aminos so I sub soy sauce, and we don’t do spicy so I leave out the sriracha, but even so it is delicious. Thank you for such a wonderful recipe.
This is so good! Nice and crunchy and light, a perfect summer night meal when you don’t want something heavy. I like that it is customizable to what veggies and protein you have on hand. Thank you!
I had this salad for the first time today and it is ahhhhmazing! It is my new favorite salad! I love how crunchy it is, and that dressing is absolutely delicious! Thanks for a fantastic recipe! I will definitely be making this again!
Buenas tardes quería saber si la salsa de maní se puede conservar en la heladera ya lista, de ser así cuántos días dura?? Muchas gracias! Es genial está ensalada!!!
Wow delicious! And so great for meal prep! The crisp veggies keep for the whole week. I loved the peanut sauce, too! The addition of cilantro really enhances the flavor. I ended up adding a little more honey and some water to thin it out. So good!
My husband and I are really enjoying this salad for meal prep lunches this week! We grilled up some cilantro lime chicken to go with it. Love how simple it was to make and the dressing is so tasty!
This was terrific…the peanut sauce is going to become a new favorite in my house! It’s also a very flexible and adaptable recipe, I happened to have a couple snap peas, part of a daikon radish, and a spare mango that needed using in the fridge and I tossed those in with everything else. I threw a couple shrimp on top for protein. Great dinner and great lunch leftovers!
This was so good! Great flavors, and I liked the variety of vegetables. My husband said multiple times throughout dinner that I should make this recipe again.
So easy! Lots of flavour. I think I made an oopsie by substituting coconut oil + soy sauce with coconut aminos (I dont own this). It left an interesting aftertaste…but I just adjusted the other ingredients in the salad and now it taste good! I actually ate this with curry chicken and wow… yummy.
This recipe is so easy and SO good! I took some inspiration from your Chopped Thai Chicken Salad as well and added chicken. I also added the garlic and ginger that are in that dressing to this one. Super delicious, healthy, filling, and kept really well for a few days! (I just kept the dressing separate from all the veggies and when I was ready to assemble added dressing and chicken and tossed). Can’t wait to make more of your recipes soon 🙂
This is another amazing recipe from Ashlea! We usually top this salad with chicken (either shredded or grilled) in order to add some protein. But the dressing is delicious and the fresh veggies are so satisfying. We love the “crunch” as the name implies. Thank you!!
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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!
★★★★★
I’m so glad you loved this one, Kaydence! Thanks for leaving a review!
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
★★★★★
Looks tasty! What would be a good substitute for fish sauce (for vegetarians)?
Hi, Joy! I would just leave it out and add a bit of extra salt if needed!
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!!
★★★★★
Tasty salad but the dressing is too salty. Will definitely cut back on one of the sources next time.
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.
This is phenomenal! I added chicken so that I could serve it as a meal and it was incredible.
★★★★★
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.
★★★★★
Easy and delicious!!! The sauce is so good!!!
★★★★★
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.
★★★★★
thanks for sharing, Justine! I’m so glad you loved the recipe!
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!
★★★★★
I’m so happy you made this recipe work for you, Mimi! Thank you for sharing!
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!
★★★★★
So glad you enjoyed it, Catherine!
Love this!!
★★★★★
Thanks, Kiersten! I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
This is so good! I love all the crunchiness and the different textures. I usually add just a little leftover chicken or roast pork on top if I have it. The dressing is to die for. I don’t have coconut aminos so I sub soy sauce, and we don’t do spicy so I leave out the sriracha, but even so it is delicious. Thank you for such a wonderful recipe.
★★★★★
You’re welcome, Diana! I’m so glad you enjoyed the recipe!
Best peanut Thai sauce ever! I use this recipe weekly now and I also add it to chicken, rice noodle & veggie stir fry. Thank you so much for this!
★★★★★
This is so good! Nice and crunchy and light, a perfect summer night meal when you don’t want something heavy. I like that it is customizable to what veggies and protein you have on hand. Thank you!
★★★★★
I had this salad for the first time today and it is ahhhhmazing! It is my new favorite salad! I love how crunchy it is, and that dressing is absolutely delicious! Thanks for a fantastic recipe! I will definitely be making this again!
★★★★★
Buenas tardes quería saber si la salsa de maní se puede conservar en la heladera ya lista, de ser así cuántos días dura?? Muchas gracias! Es genial está ensalada!!!
Wow delicious! And so great for meal prep! The crisp veggies keep for the whole week. I loved the peanut sauce, too! The addition of cilantro really enhances the flavor. I ended up adding a little more honey and some water to thin it out. So good!
★★★★★
My husband and I are really enjoying this salad for meal prep lunches this week! We grilled up some cilantro lime chicken to go with it. Love how simple it was to make and the dressing is so tasty!
★★★★★
Delicious! So flavorful and colorful. We added some chicken to it as well. Love the crunchy flavor with some smooth peanut butter and slight spice.
★★★★
This was terrific…the peanut sauce is going to become a new favorite in my house! It’s also a very flexible and adaptable recipe, I happened to have a couple snap peas, part of a daikon radish, and a spare mango that needed using in the fridge and I tossed those in with everything else. I threw a couple shrimp on top for protein. Great dinner and great lunch leftovers!
★★★★★
This is my favorite kind of recipe: fresh, lots of veggies, tons of flavor! I made it for meal prep this week. Delicious!
★★★★★
This was so good! Great flavors, and I liked the variety of vegetables. My husband said multiple times throughout dinner that I should make this recipe again.
★★★★★
Oh my goodness this dressing is incredible!! Such a yummy, filling lunch for something so healthy!!
So easy! Lots of flavour. I think I made an oopsie by substituting coconut oil + soy sauce with coconut aminos (I dont own this). It left an interesting aftertaste…but I just adjusted the other ingredients in the salad and now it taste good! I actually ate this with curry chicken and wow… yummy.
This recipe is so easy and SO good! I took some inspiration from your Chopped Thai Chicken Salad as well and added chicken. I also added the garlic and ginger that are in that dressing to this one. Super delicious, healthy, filling, and kept really well for a few days! (I just kept the dressing separate from all the veggies and when I was ready to assemble added dressing and chicken and tossed). Can’t wait to make more of your recipes soon 🙂
This is another amazing recipe from Ashlea! We usually top this salad with chicken (either shredded or grilled) in order to add some protein. But the dressing is delicious and the fresh veggies are so satisfying. We love the “crunch” as the name implies. Thank you!!
Thanks for sharing! Does the dressing keep long?
This looks so good! What a perfect lunch meal prep for the week!