Thai Noodle Salad with the BEST EVER Peanut Sauce, loaded up with healthy veggies! This vegan salad is great for potlucks and Sunday meal prep and lasts up to 5 days in the fridge. Watch the video!
Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable. ~Mary Oliver~
The other day I got a hankering for an old standby we used to have on the Mizuna menu, the vegetarian restaurant my friend Tonia and I started together way back when. Thai Noodle Salad with Peanut Sauce. Here it’s made with rice noodles and a boatload of crunchy veggies- cabbage, carrots, bell pepper and radish, then tossed in the most flavorful, balanced Peanut Sauce ever!
This vegan Thai Noodle Salad is great made-ahead salad, and keeps well for 3-4 days in the fridge -perfect for midweek meals and lunches, or potlucks and gatherings. Top this with flavorful Sesame Ginger Tofu or baked chicken for added protein if you prefer. So delicious!
Yes, I may be biased – I’ve had many versions of Thai peanut sauce, here and throughout Thailand, but this Thai Peanut Sauce is still hands-down my all-time very favorite! Not too sweet, and perfectly balanced.
Expert Tip
The secret ingredient in this recipe is fresh orange juice, giving it a delicious brightness. I highly recommend making a double batch of the Thai Peanut Sauce to use with spring rolls or buddha bowls. If you are like me you will be eating it by the spoonful. It’s that good! (Also know that this works with almond butter too!)
How to make Thai Noodle Salad!
- Cook the noodles. It starts with 6 ounces of dry noodles. So here again, the salad is actually, by volume more veggies than noodles- my kind of salad! Use linguine, soba noodles, Pad Thai-style rice noodles, brown rice noodles or seriously any pasta you have in your pantry. I personally love rice noodles here.
- Prep the veggies and herbs. You’ll need 4 cups of shredded veggies- red cabbage, carrots, bell pepper, radishes, plus green onions, jalapeño, and cilantro (or basil) and place in a large bowl.
- Make the Peanut Sauce.
- Combine the noodles, veggies, herbs and peanut sauce in the mixing bowl.
- Garnish with toasted, crushed peanuts if you like! Or try this Peanut Chili Crunch!
- Add protein if you like: shredded or baked chicken, baked tofu, crispy tofu, or shrimp.
What veggies to use?
- red cabbage
- bell pepper
- carrots
- radishes
- cucumber
- jicama
- use any veggie that will stay crunchy in the salad for several days.
The light and creamy peanut sauce is a nice contrast.
Make this as spicy as you want. I love adding fresh, finely chopped jalapeño to the salad for a little added heat.
Toss it up and serve it in a serving bowl.
Garnish with the roasted crushed peanuts and chopped scallion at the end ( so they stay fresh and crunchy).
FAQS
- Peanut Allergy? Substitute almond butter and toasted slivered almonds!
- Making it ahead? Feel free to keep the noodles and veggies, separate from the dressing, crushed peanuts and herbs until ready to serve!
- Storage: This salad will keep 4-5 days in the refrigerator.
Healthy, delicious and filling- I love having this Thai Noodle Salad on hand for a quick healthy snack too!
Here is the Thai Noodle Salad topped with the Baked Sesame Ginger Tofu. My absolute favorite.
Hope you enjoy this vegan Thai Noodle Salad with Peanut Dressing. Make a batch on Sunday and have it throughout the week- you’ll love yourself for it- I promise!
More Asian Salads You’ll Love!
- 40 MAKE-AHEAD VEGAN SALADS!
- Vietnamese Noodle Salad
- Sesame Cabbage Noodle Salad
- Simply Suwanee’s Thai Glass Noodle Salad
- Easy Crunchy Asian Slaw
- Thai Crunch Salad with Peanut Ginger Dressing
- Soba Noodle Salad
- Asian Cucumber Salad
Hope you enjoy this one – please rate and share your comments below! Pinning and sharing is always appreciated too!
xoxo
Thai Noodle Salad | 60-sec video
Thai Noodle Salad with Peanut Sauce
- Prep Time: 15
- Cook Time: 15
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 6 1x
- Category: Vegan, Salad
- Method: Tossed
- Cuisine: Thai
- Diet: Vegan
Description
A simple delicious recipe for Thai Noodle Salad with Peanut Sauce, loaded up with healthy veggies. Vegan and Gluten free, this make-ahead salad is perfect for midweek lunches or large gatherings. Add Sesame Ginger Tofu for added protein! Watch the video.
Ingredients
- 6 ounces dry noodles (brown rice noodles, pad thai style rice noodles, soba noodles, linguini)
- 4 cups mix of red cabbage, carrots and radish, shredded or grated
- 1 red bell pepper, finely sliced
- 3 scallions, sliced
- 1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped (or sub basil and mint)
- 1 tablespoon (or less, or more) jalapeño, finely chopped
- 1/4–1/2 cup roasted, crushed peanuts ( optional garnish)
Thai Peanut Sauce ( You may not need all- so save extras for another use.)
- 5 thin slices ginger- cut across the grain, about the size of a quarter.
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1/2 cup peanut butter ( or sub almond butter!)
- 1/2 cup fresh orange juice ( roughly 1 large orange)
- 1/3 cup fresh lime juice ( roughly 2 limes)
- 1/4 cup soy sauce or GF Braggs Liquid Amino Acids (Note: Tamari will turn this unpleasantly dark)
- 1/3 cup honey, agave, or maple syrup
- 1/4 cup toasted sesame oil
- 1 – 1 1/2 teaspoons cayenne pepper ( or a squirt of sriracha sauce)
- 1 teaspoon salt
Add this Baked Sesame Ginger Tofu (Optional)
Instructions
- Cook Noodles: Cook pasta according to directions on package. ( See notes for rice noodles) Drain and chill under cold running water.
- Blend the Peanut Sauce: while noodles are cookig, blend the peanut sauce ingredients together using a blender until smooth.
- Toss: Place shredded veggies, bell pepper, scallions, cilantro and jalapeño into a serving bowl. Toss. Add the cold noodles to the serving bowl and toss again. Pour some peanut sauce over top and toss well to combine- no need to use all, just use enough to coat well. ( Save the extra sauce for any leftover salad-as it can soak up the sauce overnight.)
- Taste: Adjust the salt (to your liking), add chili flakes if you want, or more lime, and serve, garnishing with roasted peanuts and cilantro and a lime wedge.
Notes
Noodles: If cooking pad thai style rice noodles, add the noodles to a pot of boiling water. Turn heat off, stir and let steep 2-3 minutes until tender, drain and run under cool water. Alternatively, pour boiling water over the noodles in a baking dish, let soak until softened, drain.
Salad will keep 4 days in the fridge.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 1/8 cups
- Calories: 286
- Sugar: 13.3 g
- Sodium: 374 mg
- Fat: 13 g
- Saturated Fat: 2.1 g
- Carbohydrates: 39.9 g
- Fiber: 2.6 g
- Protein: 3.8 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
I just made this for a quick lunch and immediately made some more sauce! I agree… you could definitely drink it 😋 Absolutely delicious 🧡 thank you for the recipe x
Thanks so much Clara! Glad you liked it! Yes, the sauce is drinkable-for sure! 😉
Making this for the second time in two weeks. Perfect for picnics etc. The first time I made it with almond butter and while delicious, I think peanut butter would give it better richness and a fuller mouth feel so that’s what I’m using this time and I’m making a double batch!
This is going to be my new official go-to pot luck salad!
Awesome Valerie!
I have a full stomach and am very satisfied with this dish and yet, I want to eat more already, it’s very good!
Glad you like it!
Wow – When you taste the peanut sauce for the first time, you kind of say “who needs the noodles and vegetables?” This sauce is drinkable. Fortunately, I had prepped all of the vegetables and noodles before I made the peanut sauce so I was committed to the salad. The salad was so, so good. I made this for Father’s day bbq burger lunch with the kids with one daughter who is vegetarian. I always try to make something special for her. She took all of the leftovers home (including the extra sauce – thankfully so I could not drink it straight out of the jar). Before serving the salad, give it another taste – I made it a few hours ahead of time and found I needed to add more lime and salt. Question: I had purchased rice noodles and after I got home I realized they were the “fine” size and worried they could not support the dressing. I went out and purchased a box of linguine. Would the fine rice noodles have been okay?
I think the peanut sauce may be a tad heavy for fine rice noodles- especially if you have leftovers. Linguine better!
I loved this recipe ! So much so that I am making it for the second time !
Awesome Laura!
made this several times and can’t get enough! just made a double recipe for Father’s Day lunch and it all disappeared! Added thai basil and mint, lots of shredded green onions and thinly slice radishes.
Yum!
just blended the peanut sauce and tried, OMG, you are right, best ever , now I have to wait until tonight to have the salad – nom nom nom
Glad you like it Richard!
My husband’s exact words: “just when I was over you being a vegan you go and make this” He are two bowls before we went to the party 🙂
Haha- love it.
Made this to bring to a family party. The party was at my sisters. They are major meat grillers. My daughter and her boyfriend are vegan. I wanted to make sure they had a few choices to eat. Used a wheat Angel hair spaghetti, trying to be healthy. Substituted a bagged broccoli coleslaw and added cucumbers cause I love them! Added the baked tofu from your recipe and roasted the red pepper in the oven while the tofu was baking. Vegans and carnivores both loved this! My sister and her son both wanted the recipe. I am making it this week for dinner and lunches. I will add more sriracha for heat and grilled chicken for protein. I have a feeling that this will be my go to all summer long.
Perfect Suzi! Love it!
I was asked to make this recipe for a baby shower. What proportions of cabbage, carrots, and radishes should I use so that none of the flavors become too overpowering? I haven’t had much experience using cabbage and radishes in salads and would appreciate any suggestions you might have. Thank you!
I would do mostly cabbage and carrots and go light on the radishes.:)
Thank you for responding! I’ll take your advice as I make this salad for our shower this weekend!
Red Bell pepper is really nice here too- for color and flavor!
I love this recipe, it’s so good! After doing an online search for this dish, I found this recipe. While reading the instructions I found out it was posted by an old friend! Thanks Sylvia!
thanks Billy!
Hi there! I am always looking for Asian inspired recipes to make for my mom. She LOVES this type of food but has a severe sesame allergy. I realize it has it’s own flavor important to the recipe, but do you recommend any alternative oils to use?
You could just sub olive oil?
The sauce is SO delicious. We used it to top a “Buddha bowl” with rice, sprouts and veggies. But really you could put it on anything! My new go to. Thanks!
Thank you for another winning recipe, Sylvia! This salad is so delicious and I love the colors and textures, too. The peanut sauce will definitely be on my repeat list for other uses as well.
Great to hear you liked it!
Loved this! I added pieces of chicken and loved it even more!
I love this recipe, the sauce is perfect as it is, and I often find myself reaching for it when I want a quick satay-style dip for other things. I change the veggies every time depending on what I have in the fridge and find that shaved fennel is such a lovely addition. I usually garnish with some crispy chilli oil. It keeps well in the fridge so is perfect for weekday lunch prep.
Long desire to make this salad and finally made it.
So so yummy.
I used almond butter and coconut sugar . No honey .
Thank you.
Yummy ! So good and well balanced. Exactly what I needed to fuel up my body and delight my taste buds after a day in heavy eating! 👌
Amazing! The dressing is delicious. I used the dash of sriracha instead of cayenne (as suggested) and added shredded chicken to make it a meal. The entire family loved it. I will definitely make this again. Thank you!
Really really good! I will make it again.
I made this salad to use up the leftover veggies, tofu and dressing from the Fresh Spring Rolls recipe, and I liked it even more than the rolls!
This is fresh and fabulous! So easy too. Delighted to find such a delightful vegan dish. 🙏🏼 I’m so excited to look through your other recipes. Difficult sometimes when there’s one vegan in the family, even my carnivorous husband adored this. Can’t wait til we are allowed to see friends again after lockdown and I can serve this salad.
Glad you liked Vanessa! Make sure to check out the “adaptable” category on the recipe page- there are lots of ideas for mixed households where some eat meat and some don’t. 🙂
Hi Sylvia, I’ve made peanut sauces before but they’ve always turned out tasting… “chalky” for some reason. Turned me right off. I was hesitant to try yours, but after reading all the amazing reviews you received for this recipe, I decided to go for it one last time. I’m so glad I did! I used the same natural peanut butter as always, but for some reason, your sauce is AMAZING! Puts all others I’ve tried to shame. Maybe it’s the orange juice, I don’t know. Whatever it is, it’s just so, so delicious. Thanks for making me a believer in peanut sauce again. Magic!!
I made this last night, next time I’ll use less ginger. Other than that it was delicious.
Do you add the peanut sauce if you make the salad a few days before serving or just before serving ??
I think you could do it either way. 🙂