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.

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thai crunch salad in bowl with fork

Thai Crunch Salad with Creamy Peanut Dressing

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 5 from 20 reviews
  • 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

Description

This Thai 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!


Ingredients

Scale

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

Instructions

  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!

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37 Comments

  1. 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.






    1. Ashlea Carver says:

      You’re welcome, Diana! I’m so glad you enjoyed the recipe!

  2. 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!






  3. Stephanie says:

    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!






  4. 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!






    1. Mariana Dell Agostino says:

      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!!!

  5. 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!






  6. 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!






  7. Jordan Schultz says:

    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.






  8. 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!






  9. This is my favorite kind of recipe: fresh, lots of veggies, tons of flavor! I made it for meal prep this week. Delicious!






  10. 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.






  11. Oh my goodness this dressing is incredible!! Such a yummy, filling lunch for something so healthy!!

  12. 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.

  13. 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 🙂

  14. 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!!

  15. Thanks for sharing! Does the dressing keep long?

  16. This looks so good! What a perfect lunch meal prep for the week!