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This Thai crunch salad is crisp, colorful, and tossed in a creamy peanut dressing that’s so good, you’ll want to drizzle it on everything.
Photo by Alexandra Grablewski (Chronicle Books, 2018)
If you’ve ever had the Thai Crunch Salad at California Pizza Kitchen, you know how good that combination of crisp vegetables and creamy peanut dressing can be. This recipe is my take on that restaurant favorite, with crunchy Napa cabbage, colorful vegetables, edamame, and a peanut dressing that’s so good, you’ll want to put it on everything!
Don’t be put off by the long ingredient list. You can save time by using pre-shredded carrots and other prepared vegetables from the supermarket, and the dressing comes together in minutes in a blender. The salad makes a wonderful light lunch, and it’s easy to turn into a more substantial meal, too.
“This salad was such a big hit at dinner last night that my guest requested seconds. It’s so over-the-top delicious that it’s insane!”
How to Make Thai Crunch Salad
Make the dressing: Combine all of the dressing ingredients except for the cilantro in a blender and blend until completely smooth. Chopping the garlic and ginger first prevents the dressing from being gritty or uneven, especially if your blender isn’t super powerful. Add the cilantro.
Blend for just a few seconds until the cilantro is finely chopped. (Adding it at the end keeps the dressing a creamy, natural color instead of muddy green.)
Combine the veggies: In a large bowl, combine the cabbage, carrots, bell peppers, cucumber, edamame, scallions, and cilantro. Seeding the cucumbers is key for keeping the salad crisp and avoiding excess water that can dilute the dressing.
Dress and serve: When you’re ready to eat, pour the peanut dressing over the vegetables and toss until everything is nicely coated. That’s it! The salad is best served right away, while all those vegetables are still crisp and crunchy.
Make-Ahead and Storage Instructions
This salad is great for making ahead, as long as you keep the vegetables and dressing separate until you’re ready to eat. You can chop and combine the vegetables up to 2 days in advance and store them in an airtight container in the refrigerator. The peanut dressing can be made up to 1 week ahead and refrigerated separately.
When you’re ready to serve, give the dressing a good stir or whisk, as it may thicken slightly in the fridge. Toss the salad with the dressing just before serving to keep everything nice and crunchy. Once dressed, the salad is best eaten right away.
Thai Crunch Salad with Peanut Dressing
Ingredients
For the Peanut Dressing
- ¼ cup creamy peanut butter
- 2 tablespoons unseasoned rice vinegar
- 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice, from 1 lime
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 2½ tablespoons sugar
- 2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
- (1-in) square piece fresh ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- 2 tablespoons fresh cilantro leaves
For the Salad
- 4 cups chopped Napa cabbage or shredded coleslaw mix
- 1 cup prepared shredded carrots
- 1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced into bite-sized pieces
- 1 small English cucumber, halved lengthwise, seeded and thinly sliced
- 1 cup cooked and shelled edamame
- 2 medium scallions, white and green parts, thinly sliced
- ½ cup loosely packed chopped fresh cilantro
Instructions
- Prepare the dressing: Combine all of the ingredients except for the cilantro in a blender and process until completely smooth. Add the cilantro and blend for a few seconds until the cilantro is finely chopped. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
- Prepare the salad: Combine all of the ingredients in a large bowl and toss to combine.
- Dress and serve: Just before serving, drizzle the peanut dressing over the salad and toss well to coat. If you're not serving the salad right away, keep the dressing separate so the vegetables stay crisp.
Nutrition Information
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
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What to Serve with Thai Crunch Salad
This salad is satisfying enough for a light lunch, but you can easily turn it into dinner by adding sliced grilled chicken, shrimp, or steak. It’s also delicious alongside chicken satay or honey, lime, and sriracha chicken skewers for a fun, Asian-inspired dinner. And if you’re bringing it to a potluck or cookout, it’s a nice change of pace from the usual slaw.
More Asian-Style Salad Recipes You May Like
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LOVE this dressing. We’ve made it multiple times, but this time we quadrupled the recipe and froze in little mason jars. Now all we have to do is chop the veggies and dinner is ready! Thank you for yet another delicious recipe! 🙂
Great info!!
What a brilliant idea! The dressing really is the bomb.
Yes. I have frozen the dressing as well. Came out perfect.
Thanks for the salad dressing recipes, Jenn. I haven’t tried them yet but I know good recipes when I see them! Will comment on the results too, later.
I’m not a Thai food fan, but I was looking for a different salad to try and thought I’d branch out a little. I’m so glad I did! This really is very, very good! I used jarred ginger paste because that’s what I had. I used honey but no sugar in the dressing. Also the grocery was out of green onions (gasp!!!) so I used some very thinly sliced red onion that I soaked for an hour. Came out Great!! I’ll be making this for my friends when I go see them in a few weeks. Thanks so much for the great recipe! I have a few of your other vegetarian dishes and salads book marked and will be going through and making them one by one. 🙂
My wife absolutely loves this dressing, she keeps begging me to make more (I usually double up the recipe). She puts the dressing on everything!
I always come back to this salad… this time 3x for a teacher/staff potluck. I subbed sun butter and GF soy sauce to make it peanut-free and celiac friendly. Slightly less honey. Worked great! Thanks!
Made the peanut dressing tonight for a regular garden salad and it’s delicious but I had to add some water to thin it out because it was super thick and wouldn’t really pour.
I’ve checked the recipe over a few times and can’t see anything that I did wrong.
Ive never tried the salad it’s inspire by so I’m not sure if it’s suppose to be really thick or what?
I will definitely save the recipe and be making this regularly.
Found this recipe in your cookbook – had to try it. Love, love, love the dressing! Only change I made was not adding the sugar as it was a bit too sweet! This is definitely going to be one of my top of list dressings! Salad was very good as well. Definitely a keeper!
Delicious! I made with the honey lime chicken and will definitely be making again. Jen, you make trying new dishes and cooking fun. I love all your recipes and bought your cookbook for my daughter-in-law.
Just made this tonight. I made a full recipe of the dressing and half of the salad. I probably used a bit more dressing than the recipe calls for because I forgot I had halved the salad but not the dressing, and it was wonderful. Saving the other half of the dressing and undressed salad separately for another day. We will be making and eating this often!
I used crunchy natural 100% peanut butter and it was fine. Also accidentally put the cilantro in the blender with all the other dressing ingredients and that was also fine.
Wow, this dressing is soo good. Highly recommend. Had it with carrots, purple cabbage and romaine lettuce and left over chicken. Oh the crunch