I’ve been traveling quite a bit lately, both for work and for fun, and with the warmer weather and eating out constantly while traveling, basically all I’ve wanted to eat while home is salads!  Most restaurants don’t serve enough vegetables, in my opinion, so I always crave all the vegetables upon returning home!

This salad has been a repeat offender, in the best possible way, over the past week!  It’s full of fresh, crunchy vegetables, easy to prepare boiled chicken, and the most flavorful and delicious Thai peanut dressing.  The dressing is inspired by a Thai peanut sauce that I’ve put over swoodles (sweet potato noodles) in the past.  It’s also partly inspired by one of my favorite noodle dishes (called Rainbow Peanut Noodles) at a local Thai fusion restaurant.  P.S. if you’re in the Kansas City area, I highly recommend you check out Lulu’s Thai Noodle House!  You really can’t go wrong with much on their menu, but I especially love the Rainbow Peanut Noodles, the Drunken Noodles, Pad Se Eu, or of course Pad Thai.

Anyways, back to this SALAD 🙂

It’s super easy to prepare and really allows for various combinations of vegetables to be tossed in to your liking!  I made this a second time using a slightly different mix of vegetables than the first based on what I had on hand and what I could easily find at the store, so like I said, if any of the vegetables listed below don’t appeal to you, feel free to mix it up!  Any vegetables found in Asian dishes could be tried with this – sugar snap or snow peas, cucumber, cauliflower, celery, even canned water chestnut!

The dressing is really the star here, and putting it all in a blender to mix makes it super easy.  I used fresh ginger and garlic but this could easily be made with dried or powdered garlic and ginger as well.  You’ll just need to reduce the amounts to probably around 1/4 to 1/2 tsp. to be equivalent to the amounts of fresh used in this recipe.  Since it’s a smaller amount, I’d recommend using a personal size blender or small food processor.  I’ve used Ninja brand blenders for several years with success.  And in my opinion, you really can’t beat the price.  Either of these models would work well for this recipe – blender, personal blender, and food processor combo or for less money, 2 sizes of personal blender cups combo.  Also, the heat level from the crushed red pepper can be modified or removed all together depending on your liking.

This makes quite a large amount of salad, but since all the vegetables are pretty hearty, they can hold up well to being saved for leftovers, even with the dressing on!  Below is a picture of it being mixed up in the biggest bowl I own :).

This salad can easily be made Whole30 or Paleo as well if you follow those food plans.

So, give this recipe a shot and let me know how it goes!  I’d love to hear what kind of delicious veggie combos you come up with!

Ingredients:

Servings:  6            Time:  30 minutes

Dressing:

1.  1/4 C coconut aminos (or soy sauce)
2.  2 T natural, no sugar added peanut butter (or almond butter for Whole30 or Paleo)
3. 2 T Rice Wine Vinegar
4. 2 T Olive Oil
5. 1 t Sesame Oil
6. 1 large clove garlic, peeled (or approximately 1/4-1/2 t powdered)
7. 1 thumb-sized knob of ginger, peeled (or approximately 1/4-1/2 t powdered)
8. 1 dried date, softened in 1-2 T warm water for a few minutes (or 1 t sweetener of choice)
9. 1/8 t crushed red pepper to taste
10.  Salt and pepper to taste (use less salt or omit if using soy sauce)
11. Warm water as needed to thin (use the leftover water from the softened date)

Salad:

1. 1 14-16oz bag coleslaw mix
2. 1 14-16oz bag shredded purple cabbage
3. 1 14-16oz bag broccoli slaw
4. 6 green onions, thinly sliced
5. 6 radishes, thinly sliced
6. 1 orange, red, or yellow bell pepper, thinly sliced
7. 1/2 C slivered almonds
8. 4 large chicken breasts, about 2-2.5 pounds, cooked and shredded
9. Fresh cilantro and sesame seeds to top, optional

Instructions:

1. Cook and shred chicken.  I use the method described in my Buffalo Chicken Dip recipe.
2. While chicken cooks, throw all ingredients for the dressing into a blender and blend until smooth, adding small amounts of warm water as necessary to thin to typical dressing consistency.
3. Chop bell pepper, radish, and green onion and mix with coleslaw, purple cabbage, and broccoli slaw in a large bowl.
4. Dish up about 1/6 of the rainbow of vegetables mix, 1/6 of shredded chicken, and top with approximately 2 T of dressing, slivered almonds, cilantro and sesame seeds if desired.
5. Enjoy!

Nutrition info:  383 tot cal, 14 g fat, 25 g carb, 42 g protein