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
Really good!
This is sooooo good. I add shrimp and I think it just makes it perfect. There is quite a bit of sauce left, have you tried to freeze it successfully?
Yes it does freeze beautifully! Glad you enjoyed!
This salad is so simple and super tasty. It made enough for three meals for both myself and hubby.
Glad you enjoyed Jenn!
Excellent cucumber salad!
This was Awesome! Our family loved it. I only put 1/2 tsp of cayenne pepper because I didn’t want it too hot, but other than that I followed the recipe. This would also be great in the summer time. Thank you for posting this.
Awesome Julie!
One of my favourite Thai salad dishes to make! Super easy and tons of flavour.
Great to hear you are enjoying DD!
THE BEST PEANUT SAUCE EVER!!!
Yay!
Heerlijk, en makkelijk te maken
So yummy.
I have made this absolutely delicious recipe a few times now, it keeps fantastically well in the fridge and is perfect with the Ginger Sesame tofu. My only slight problem was I found it got a little watery after a day or two which I’m not fond of, so last time I used white miso paste in place of soy sauce. This made the dressing thicker and it bound much better to the other ingredients, plus the gorgeous umami miso flavour really gave it a depth of flavour.
What a great tip Sheena! The raw veggies are probably the reason, they release their juices over time.
I’ve been meaning to comment on this recipe for some time now. I’ve made it a few times (making it again tonight) and it is always delicious with NO leftovers…ever! Thanks for a great recipe.
Glad you enjoy this one!
This salad is fresh but also filling. The flavors are great!
Great to hear Leslie- glad you enjoyed it!
Absolutely delicious and so nutritious with all the veggies. And the peanut sauce is truly the very best!
Glad you enjoyed Sandra!
My sauce came out of the blender on the thinner side. Will this affect the salad textures?
Hey Wendy! You can always add a little more peanut butter to thicken. The dressing is quite thin though to better coat the noodles.
I made this dish for the first time today. I used linguine noodles that I had on hand, and whatever crisp veggies I had in the fridge. Wow. This is a keeper. I mixed everything with the hot noodles, and I absolutely loved it served warm!
Wonderful Julie! So happy you gave it a go.
Do you use salted or unsalted peanuts in this? I bought both, but am sure you know better than I do, I am making this for my amazing husband who recently had his 8th surgery. He does so much for me and family and friends, doing something wonderful for him makes me feel like I am giving back to him, 37 years of a great marriage, this is the 3rd recipe of yours that I have made in the past 2 weeks. Thank you for the great, tasty, beautiful dinners. He has smiled at everyone of them and had asked d me save to our favorites files.
I usually use peanut butter and have used mainly salted. I am so happy he is hanging in there… and is smiling. It says a lot. It feel so good to give back. 🙂
Last night I decided to make two vegan salads to serve for dinner as my daughter was coming over. On a hot summer night I thought that would be refreshing. It was a tremendous hit with my husband as well and the peanut sauce was fantastic!! My daughter wanted the recipe. I will be making this again for sure!
Awesome Sherry!
Delicious. Brown rice noodles and soba do not cook well for me so next time I’ll use vermicelli… the flavors were great!
Hi Kathy, glad you enjoyed the flavors. You could even try linguini noodles?
I have made this salad twice and the flavour is amazing! I followed the recipe as written and I wouldn’t want to change a thing. And that peanut sauce is the best I have ever had! The second time I made the salad I didn’t have maple syrup so I used coconut syrup just because that is all I had on hand.. and I think it was just as good. The only reason I am giving this salad 4 stars instead of 5 is because of the rice noodles. I don’t know what I am doing wrong but the first time I made this the noodles were slimy and stuck together.. the second time they just stuck together. I’m going to be making this again tonite and am going to try Lotus Foods Millet and Rice ramen noodles. I’ll let you know how it turns out. Thank you, Sylvia, for this wonderful recipe!
It may be the type of rice noodles you are using?
How is this after 24 hours in the fridge? I’m thinking about making it as a side dish for a party
I think it would be fine- but what if you just prepped everything ahead, then assemble right before?
This salad was delicious! I made it for a ladies’ dinner and everybody asked for the recipe!
Great to hear and thanks for sharing!
I made this salad as a side dish for meeting my boyfriends parents for the first time. Pretty sure I can thank this for winning them over! It was by far the best peanut noodle salad I’ve ever made and they asked to keep the leftovers. I made it with the ginger sesame tofu and it was delicious too. Highly recommend!!!
YAY, love it Sara! And I am sure you would have won them over without the salad. ❤️
Can the peanut sauce be frozen.
Yes, Daniel- it freezes great!
Would this work with fresh ramen noodles?
I don’t see why not? Give it a go!
This was delicious! I didn’t have carrots or red pepper so I added a bunch of chopped broccoli and it was so good. I also used sesame seeds instead of sesame oil…it didn’t feel like it was missing anything. Thank you!
Perfect Sophie!