Thai Crunch Salad with Spicy Cashew Dressing is one of the best and simple, healthy salad recipes packed full of flavor, crunch, and color.

This satisfying summer recipe includes crunchy carrots and cabbage, cool cucumber, green bell pepper (capsicum) with roasted cashews, and healthy as well as spicy cashew dressing.

The recipe below is vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free salad.

This Thai-style salad can be served as a meal in itself or as a side for your lunch or dinner with grilled chicken or any meat of your choice. I had a Thai meal with Thai Fried Rice and this Thai Salad.

If you love Thai dishes, then check out the following recipes from our blog - Tofu Stir-Fry with Red Curry Paste, restaurant-style Thai Fried Rice or Khao Phat, Simple Thai Fried Rice with Mango or Pineapple, delicious Thai Popcorn for your next movie night, popular Thai stir-fry called Pad Kra Pao, the most popular Thai Sticky Rice with Mangoes, etc.

My simple and boring salad story 🙂

Growing up in India, salad to me was nothing but raw vegetables - onion, tomato, cucumber, carrots, and beetroot cut into rounds and served. We just sprinkled salt and ate only those vegetables we loved and the rest were simply ignored 🙂 Even today, if you visit restaurants in India and order salad, this is what they serve and I must say it is really boring. Would you want to pay and eat salad this way?

I was amazed by the variety of salad recipes in the United States. I never knew you can even make fresh veggies taste fantastic and make any picky eater also love salads. Yes, salad can be delicious, a wholesome meal by itself.

Thanks to food chains like Subway, Panera, Chipotle, Taco Bell, etc., for introducing tasty salads all over the world 🙂 If you love to prepare your own salads at home, use the following recipes as inspiration and customize them to your liking

Back to the Cashew Dressing

Cashew dressing is so good that you may be tempted to have it even before tossing it with veggies. You can also serve this with sandwiches, subs, or as a dipping sauce with chips and nachos. If you are like me, then I highly recommend you double the amount of dressing.

I generally don't post much of salad recipes because there is no one recipe as such. Salads are really easy to prepare and the recipe is flexible. The list of ingredients is too big sometimes 🙂 I would say add those vegetables available in your pantry or only those that you love to eat.

The only amount that I can share is the salad dressing. Depending on your taste, pour as much dressing as you like just before you are ready to serve or eat and store the rest of the dressing in a jar or in an air-tight container in the refrigerator for later use.

Ingredients for Thai Crunch Salad with Spicy Cashew Dressing

For the Cashew Salad Dressing

¼ cup Cashews (check tip for substitute)
1 ½ tablespoon Lemon juice
2 tablespoon Coconut oil
1 tablespoon Soy sauce
1 tablespoon Honey or Sugar
2 Garlic cloves
1 inch Ginger
½ teaspoon Salt
½ to 1 teaspoon Red pepper flakes (1 red chile)

For the salad

2 cups Cabbage, shredded
1 Medium-sized Carrot shredded
1 Green bell pepper, shredded
1 Cucumber, sliced
2 tablespoon Cashews, chopped
2 tablespoon fresh Cilantro or Basil leaves

How to make Thai Crunch Salad with Spicy Cashew Dressing

First, make the spicy cashew dressing :

In a blender add all the ingredients mentioned in the list For the Cashew salad dressing and blend it to a fine smooth paste. Check for the taste and adjust accordingly.
You can roughly chop garlic, ginger as some blenders cannot process whole pieces.
You may add 1 or 2 tablespoon of water while blending.
Refrigerate till you are ready to serve.

For the salad

Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl. If serving right away, drizzle the dressing as needed and toss. Else, serve the dressing as an optional side so that your salad remains crunchy and doesn't get soggy.

Tips to make the best salad:

Instead of cashews, you can even use cashew butter.
You can add 1 tablespoon of unseasoned rice vinegar for dressing if desired.
Remove the seeds from the cucumber as they make salad watery.
Feel free to use any crunchy vegetables of your choice. To make a rainbow salad for more colors add purple cabbage, red or yellow bell pepper.
To make dressing spicier you can add black peppercorn or Thai bird chilies if desired.

Peanut Salad Dressing or Almond Salad Dressing

To make peanut salad dressing simply substitute cashews with peanuts or peanut butter in the recipe.

Similarly to make Almond salad dressing substitute cashews with almond or almond butter in the recipe.

Salad in a Jar

If you are a fan of mason jars, you can also make a salad in a jar. Just pour the dressing first followed by veggies (cabbage followed by carrots, bell pepper, and cucumber). Simply pour in a plate during lunchtime, toss and enjoy. Alternatively, you can give the jar a good shake and eat directly from the jar.

Making Salad ahead ?

Any salad tastes the best when served fresh. But if you are planning to make ahead, I would say chop and assemble all the ingredients and keep the dressing separately. If you mix the veggies and dressing ahead of serving time, the veggies will start to soften. So to keep it crisp and fresh, I recommend keeping the dressing separately and mixing just before serving.

How to store leftover salad with dressing?

If there are any leftovers, you can store them in an airtight container in refrigerator upto 2 days. Depending on the ingredients you add, it may become soggy and unappealing.