Thai Rainbow Salad with Peanut Dressing

This colorful salad takes less than 30 minutes to prepare and is packed with flavor! Perfect as a side dish or add tofu or grilled chicken and make it a meal!

Fresh, Flavorful & Filling!

I first made this salad a few years back because we were growing kale in our patio garden and it was is growing like crazy!

I was making kale everything and this was one of my favorites that we continue to make.

It’s simple, packed with flavor and works equally well as a side salad or as a meal if you add tofu or grilled chicken.

The reason this salad came to be is because of the peanut sauce in my Vegetarian Pad Thai. I am totally obsessed with this peanut sauce– it is so yummy it’s practically drinkable! So I assembled a salad around it using flavors from the pad thai and inspired by flavors in the Minimalist Baker collard spring rolls.

So here’s what’s in it!

The basics are fresh lacinato kale, red pepper, bean sprouts, basil, scallions, red cabbage and carrots.

For a quick tip on cutting kale….

I like to slice out the stem, place the two halves on top of one another, roll the halves into a circle, then slice the circle and slice again for smaller pieces. I have found this to be the quickest and easiest way to get bite size pieces.

Add in our favorite Peanut Sauce turned dressing and it is addictively delicious! You could also make this with any nut or seed butter of your choice if you have an allergy to peanuts.

The Peanut Dressing is one of my favorites! It is a little savory, a little sweet, a little (or a lot – you decide) spicy . If you like peanut based dressings and sauces, it is practically drinkable!

It’s made with 8 ingredients and comes together quickly: peanut butter, gluten-free tamari, ginger, rice wine vinegar, sriracha, fresh lime juice, water and brown sugar.

With the peanut dressing drizzled on the salad it’s super colorful, packed with nutrients and loaded with flavor.

Perfect as a side dish. Or add grilled tofu or chicken and make it a meal.

This salad is great any time of year but I particularly love it in the Summer when kale is super fresh and tender.

Hope you love it as much as we do!

Scroll down for recipe and leave a comment if you try.

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Recipe

Thai Rainbow Salad with Peanut Dressing

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Prep time

25 mins

Total time

25 mins

This colorful salad takes less than 30 minutes to prepare and is packed with flavor! Perfect as a side dish or add tofu or grilled chicken and make it a meal!

Author: Healthy Gluten-Free Family

Recipe type: Dinner, Salads, Summer

Cuisine: Gluten-Free, Vegan, Vegetarian

Serves: 4-6 servings

Ingredients

Salad ingredients

Kale, approximately 1 bunch, de-stemmed and torn or chopped into bite-size pieces
1 packed cup fresh basil, chopped
1 large red bell pepper, sliced into thin strips
½ - 1 cup Bean sprouts, to taste
1 cup Red Cabbage sliced thin
1 cup Matchstick Carrots
½ - 1 cup Scallions, green parts, sliced
Add ins:
Extra Firm Tofu, approximately ½ container, rinsed, drained and cubed (I purchased pre-grilled tofu which worked well here)
OR
Grilled chicken, 1-2 pieces, sliced or cubed

Peanut Sauce/ Dressing

¼ cup natural peanut butter
1 tablespoon gluten-free tamari
½ -1 inch piece ginger
1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar
2 "squirts" siracha sauce
Juice of 1 small lime
¼ cup hot water (you can use less if you want a thicker sauce but for the salad, we prefer thinner)
2 tablespoon brown sugar

Instructions

Peanut Dressing