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
More from Feasting At Home
Thai Noodle Salad | 60-sec video
Thai Noodle Salad with Peanut Sauce
- Prep Time: 15
- Cook Time: 15
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 6-8
- 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. *See notes for rice noodles. Cook pasta according to directions on the package. Drain and chill under cold running water, drain.
- Peanut Sauce. While noodles are cooking, add all the peanut sauce ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth. (You can do this up to 3 days ahead and refrigerate.)
- Prep your veggies. Slice, grate, and chop.
- Combine. 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 it well, generously. (Save any 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
Rice Noodles: If cooking pad thai style rice noodles, 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 cup
- Calories: 214
- Sugar: 10 g
- Sodium: 280.5 mg
- Fat: 9.8 g
- Saturated Fat: 1.6 g
- Carbohydrates: 29.9 g
- Fiber: 2 g
- Protein: 2.9 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
Awesome and versatile!
Wow. That dressing! How long does the extra dressing stay good for in the fridge?
4 days!
This dish was absolutely fantastic! I found the recipe at 5 pm last night and dinner was ready by 7. The best part was that I had all the ingredients at home.
Thank you,
Rahul
Holy wow!!
I have never replied to one of these sites until today. I love cooking and I try many things but I have to say your peanut sauce recipe nailed it. When I finished blending it I took a small taste expecting to be underwhelmed. That was one of the most delicious things that I have ever tasted. Wow! I used it on your Thai Noodle Salad recipe. Thank you!
This was SO GOOD.
I just prepped this for my weekly lunches but decided to have some leftover rice from another night, topped with the shredded vegies the dressing and IT WAS THE BOMB.
Hello! This looks delicious. Do the nutrition facts include rice noodles and the peanut sauce? And is that 286 calories for 6 servings? Seems too good to be true. Thanks!
Yes, it is per serving. 🙂
Amazing recipe. Possibly the best thing I ever cooked.
Holy moly, this peanut sauce is “da winnah” (as we say in Hawaii). SO tasty, I was eating it straight out of the blender (after I unplugged it of course). Thank you Sylvia for another easy, tasty recipe. Am delighted to have discovered your blog!
Thanks Kelli!
Very delicious sauce and I love that you can substitute whatever kind of noodles and veggies you have on hand. Flexible recipes are so important right now! I added a scoop of miso to the dressing and it gave it just a little more depth. Yummy! We all loved it and leftovers would be just as good but we didn’t have any.
1 made this the other night and we loved it I doubled the peanut sauce so I could have that on some other salads or vegetables it was yummy!
I’ve made this recipe several times now and I can honestly say that it’s addicting! I’ve made a few different thai peanut noodle salads and this dressing is the best by far. Thanks for sharing!
delicious, love your peanut sauce, which I will be making a steady supply of. Beautiful colourful dish, which I just had to have two bowls of. 🙂
Thanks Ann!
Wow I made this with only 1 adjustment, added brocolli chopped up. It’s so good and pretty. I am a health coach and will share with my community and share your page link. Amazing. 👍
Thank you very appreciated!
This is a fantastic recipe — easy to make, loved by my whole family, and easily adaptable in terms of spiciness, types of vegetables you add, whether or not you want to add a protein. You will want to eat the sauce on everything. LOVE IT.
Thanks Lindsey!
Five stars my husband and I both really loved it. I added tofu that I fried and baked in the oven to crisp it up which was the first time I’ve ever done that with tofu it was excellent I’m going to make some of your other recipes love your blog!
Very nice— we used slivers of red onion and a bit of rice wine vinegar plus halved straw mushrooms and baby corn….. very fun
Perfect Marci!
Fabulous recipe that we will make again. Added fried prawns with the dish. Yum!!
Great lunch option! How long will this last in the fridge for do you think?
4 day!
I’ve been trying out a lot of recipes right now and this is amazing! It’s so easy to get into the cycle of recipes you know and I’m so glad I tried this one out. Thank you so much! Excited to try others you have. This peanut sauce is amazing. I made extra to try on other dishes.
Thanks- happy you liked it.
Delicious! It really is the best ever. Even my not so adventurous husband loves this.
So excited to make this! For the dressing, do you put this all in a food processor or mix it together in a bowl?
Blend in a blender!
A food processor worked beautifully for me! I don’t have a blender and it was fine. 🙂
The perfect lunch healthy full of fresh vegetables, i used soba noodles. A delightful recipe Especially during lent.
This salad is absolutely off the chain on deliciousness. Bursting with flavor from every angle, it’s a must have/go to! A new family favorite that I’m eager to share with others!
Thank you 🙂
Holy cow. This peanut dressing changed my life!!! I have made this recipe several times with vermicelli rice noodles, and it’s been delicious every time, but I also now use this dressing on many other recipes. It has the perfect proportion of spice, citrusy tang, and creamy nutty peanut flavor that is so so much better than any homemade peanut dressing I’ve made before. I honestly have to stop myself from eating it with a spoon. Amazing! Thank you so much!