Thai Style Rainbow Crunch Salad

Eat the rainbow with this stunning, Thai-style Rainbow Crunch Salad tossed in deliciously spicy peanut dressing! This wholesome cabbage salad is a straightforward salad recipe to serve at summer season cookouts, or as a hearty lunch thought!

In the event you love this taste profile, strive my Thai Quinoa Crunch Salad too! The crunchy quinoa is LIFE CHANGING!

Crunchy Cabbage Salad With Spicy Peanut Dressing

I’ll inform you proper now, put together to be obsessive about the flavors of this scrumptious Thai-style cabbage salad! It’s a literal rainbow of deliciousness and colour. That is my favourite recipe for cabbage salad made with a rainbow of crisp veggies, all tossed in a creamy peanut dressing. For simple weekday lunches to summer season cookouts and Asian-inspired dinners – there aren’t many events the place this vibrant crunchy salad isn’t simply the most effective. AND I make this salad at first of the week and eat it for lunch for the following few days! The hearty cabbage doesn’t wilt within the dressing and stays crunchy for days!

What You’ll Want

Right here’s an outline of what you’ll want for this crunchy salad in addition to the creamy Thai-style dressing! Confer with the recipe card for the complete quantities.

For the Salad

• Cabbage: A mixture of inexperienced and purple cabbage contribute to the “rainbow” on this rainbow crunch salad.
• Carrots: Bringing a splash of orange to the combo.
• Inexperienced Onion: You might additionally substitute one other kind of onion with gentle taste, like chives.
• Cucumber: I chop up seedless cucumbers for my recipe.
• Crimson Bell Pepper: Peppers add a pop of pink to the rainbow and in addition lend a candy crispiness. 
• Cilantro
• Peanuts: I really like the toasted crunch of dry roasted peanuts. Salted or unsalted!

For the Peanut Dressing

• Soy Sauce: I really like the salty/umami taste that comes with soy sauce. You can too use tamari. 
• Peanut Butter: For finest outcomes, use creamy peanut butter and never the crunchy variety.
• Sriracha: Or one other scorching chili sauce. 
• Rice Vinegar: For that genuine Asian-style style. In the event you don’t have rice vinegar, substitute with white wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar.
• Lime Juice: For the most effective taste, use recent squeezed lime.
• Sesame Oil: There actually aren’t any substitutes for the distinctive earthy, nutty taste of sesame oil in Asian-inspired recipes! You will discover sesame oil alongside the opposite cooking oils in most grocery shops.
• Honey: Honey works nice as a pure sweetener on this recipe (it additionally pairs tremendous properly with the opposite flavors!). In a punch, you need to use sugar as a substitute.
• Ginger: Freshly minced is finest.
• Garlic Powder: You can too use recent garlic when you want.

Learn how to Make Rainbow Crunch Salad

There’s solely 4 easy steps to creating the right crunchy cabbage salad with peanut dressing. Right here they’re:

Make the Salad: Mix all of your salad substances in a big bowl. 

Make the Dressing: Whisk collectively the substances for the dressing till you will have a clean, thick consistency.

Toss: Pour the dressing over the salad, and provides all the things toss to coat.

Garnish and Take pleasure in: Sprinkle over extra recent chopped cilantro and crumbled peanuts. Give the salad an additional squeeze of sriracha when you need, after which serve!

Can I Prep It Forward of Time?

Completely! This crunchy rainbow salad is considered one of my favorites to make forward. The cabbage and veggies keep crispy even after they’re coated within the peanut dressing, and the dressing itself is thick sufficient to carry up within the fridge. I like to make a giant batch to have readily available for straightforward lunches all through the week.

Ideas for Success

Listed below are some pointers for making this scrumptious Thai-style rainbow salad from scratch:

• Use Pre-Shredded Components: I’m all for the comfort of pre-shredded cabbage and carrots on this recipe! Some shops even carry coleslaw combine or Asian slaw combine that comes able to go together with all the above.
• Use Creamy Peanut Butter: I like to recommend sticking together with your common shelf-stable, creamy peanut butter for this recipe (like Jif or Skippy). Pure peanut butters are inclined to separate and should make the dressing oily.

Variation Concepts

You’ll be able to adapt the substances on this rainbow cabbage salad to fit your preferences:

• Add Completely different Veggies: Deliver much more colours to your rainbow salad by including additional greens and greens from the fridge. Attempt broccoli, tomatoes, avocado, snow peas, shaved asparagus, kale, yellow peppers, beets, and radishes.
• Add Protein: High your salad with grilled rooster, sliced steak, shrimp, or crispy tofu. Or strive mixing in some Asian Fireplace Meat for an additional spicy kick.
• Completely different Dressing: Make this salad with a creamy coleslaw dressing, Selfmade Ranch Dressing or a zesty French dressing as a substitute.
• Completely different Herbs: Cilantro isn’t everybody’s cup of tea. In the event you want, swap it out with basil or parsley.

Plus, combine it up with much more straightforward salad add-Ins: 

• Fried noodles
• Cashew nuts, chopped pecans, slivered almonds
• Sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds
• Edamame or chickpeas
• Craisins or raisins
• Chopped mango
• Sesame seeds

Serving Recommendations

This crunchy salad makes a scrumptious, filling meal by itself, or you possibly can serve it in tons of straightforward methods:

Retailer any leftover salad in an hermetic container within the fridge for as much as 3 days. I make this salad at first of the week and eat it for lunch for the following few days! The hearty cabbage doesn’t wilt within the dressing and stays crunchy for days!

Can I Freeze Rainbow Salad?

This cabbage salad is hearty sufficient to freeze. Retailer the salad frozen in an hermetic, freezer-safe container or bag for as much as 2 months. Thaw within the fridge earlier than serving, and spoon off any extra liquid. You can too add in some additional recent dressing to revive the feel as wanted.

Extra Asian-Impressed Sides to Attempt

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