Thai Peanut Dressing & Crunchy Salad

Thai Peanut Dressing is great to have in your recipe repertoire. Whizzed up in a matter of minutes, in this post I pair it with a big, crunchy vegetable salad that can provide ALL of your five a day. But the creamy, salty, hot, sour and sweet sauce has loads of other uses too. Try it as a dip for crudités, satay chicken or prawns, as a marinade or stir fry sauce.

I’ve been making a Thai-style peanut dressing for years. I usually tweak it as I go along: a bit more garlic *taste* another squeeze of lime *taste* a touch more soy sauce and so on.

But I thought it was about time I actually measured and noted down the amounts of each ingredient. Not least so I can share this tasty, versatile dressing with you.

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THAI PEANUT DRESSING

Before I start, I should say that I make no claims of authenticity for this Thai Peanut Dressing.

I use the cheat’s method of basing it on peanut butter. I guess the original would use raw peanuts that you roast and grind yourself. But, as the peanut butter I use contains nothing other than roasted, ground peanuts (no added oil, salt, sugar or anything else), I don’t see a problem.

My preference is for crunchy peanut butter, but smooth would be fine too.

Anyway, authentic or not, I think you’ll love this creamy dressing whether you use it as I’ve done here, to cloak a big, crunchy salad, or in a bowl of noodles or even as a dipping sauce for crudités, chicken or prawn skewers.

Thai Peanut Dressing is salty, sour, hot and sweet: that wonderful combination that’s so moreish.

Salty  In my version, the saltiness is brought by both soy sauce and fish sauce. If you prefer a dressing that entirely plant-based then replace the fish sauce with more soy.

Sour  I include tangy lime juice and rice vinegar.

Hot  I use dried chilli flakes in my dressing but you could use chilli powder. A generous squirt of sriracha sauce works too.

Sweet  Any sweetener is fine. I’ve used soft brown sugar as I like the slightly caramel flavour.

The other ingredients you’ll need are: garlic, ginger, a little oil (preferably sesame) and coconut milk. Making the dressing couldn’t be simpler: just whizz together all the ingredients in a food processor or use a stick blender.

To get the salt-sour-hot-sweet balance that’s just right for you, give it a taste and increase the amount of one or more of the elements until it’s bang on. Add more coconut milk if you prefer a thinner dressing.

CRUNCHY SALAD

Making the salad, vary the ingredients according to what vegetables you have to hand. Just make sure it’s crunchy and colourful. The amounts I’ve given in the recipe will serve two people generously and provide each with ALL of the recommended minimum of five portions of fruit and veg per day.

In the bowl pictured, there’s red and white cabbage, julienned carrots and cucumber, peppers, radishes, tomatoes, red onion, plus a few greens in the form of cavolo nero or Tuscan kale from the garden. I like lots of fresh herbs so include roughly chopped coriander and mint in the mix.

Once the Thai Peanut Dressing is to your liking, toss the salad with plenty of it. Don’t do this until you’re nearly ready to serve so that all the vegetables stay good and crunchy. Drizzle more dressing over the top if you like.

SERVING

For even more crunch and texture, I like to top the salad with sesame seeds and peanuts which I’ve toasted in a dry frying pan. If you want more heat, scatter over slices of red chilli. Having lime wedges to squeeze over is a good idea too.

I think Thai Peanut Dressing & Crunchy Salad is substantial enough to eat just as it is for a main course. But if you like a bit more variety on your plate, pair it with something like chicken, crisply fried mackerel fillets, an Asian-style omelette or tofu.

OTHER USES FOR THAI PEANUT DRESSING

Not just for crunchy salad, here’s a few more uses for this versatile Thai Peanut Dressing:

• Noodle Salad: replace some of the vegetables with cooked and cooled rice noodles.
• Add cooked chicken, tofu or prawns to the crunchy salad.
• Chicken, Prawn or Vegetable Satay: marinate the meat, seafood or veg in some of the dressing for a few hours. Grill or griddle and serve more of the dressing as a dipping sauce.
• Use as a dipping sauce for spring rolls.
• Use as a stir fry sauce.

The recipe may make more of this fabulous dressing than you’ll need for the crunchy salad. But it’ll happily sit in a jar in the fridge for up to four days, so I think it’s well worth making the full batch and using leftovers in one of the ideas above.

What’s your favourite way to eat Thai Peanut Dressing?

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Thai Peanut Dressing & Crunchy Salad

Thai Peanut Dressing is whizzed up minutes. Creamy, salty, sour, hot & sweet, in this recipe it coats a crunchy salad, but you can use it as a dip, marinade or stir fry sauce too.

Course Salad, sauce, dressing, Condiment

Cuisine Thai

Keyword thai peanut dressing

Prep Time 25 minutes

Total Time 25 minutes

Servings 2

Ingredients

For the Thai peanut dressing

• 3 tbsp peanut butter preferably 100% nuts
• 1 tbsp rice vinegar
• 1 lime juice only
• 1.5 tbsp sesame oil
• 1.5 tbsp fish sauce optional: replace with more soy sauce if liked
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 3 tsp brown sugar or other sweetener to taste
• 3 cloves garlic grated or finely chopped
• 2 cm ginger root grated or finely chopped
• 0.75 tsp dried chilli flakes
• 50-100 ml coconut milk

For the crunchy salad

• quarter head white cabbage shredded thinly
• quarter head red cabbage shredded thinly
• 2 handfuls greens (e.g. kale, spinach) optional
• 1 large carrot julienned or grated
• one third of a cucumber julienned or sliced
• Half medium red pepper thinly sliced
• Half medium green pepper thinly sliced
• 1 medium red onion halved and thinly sliced
• 8 cherry tomatoes halved
• 6 radish sliced
• 2 handfuls coriander leaf roughly chopped
• 1 handful mint leaves roughly chopped

To serve

• 2 tbsp peanuts toasted in a dry frying pan
• 1 tbsp sesame seeds toasted in a dry frying pan
• 1-2 red chillies thinly sliced
• lime wedges

Instructions

For the Thai Peanut Dressing

1. Add all the dressing ingredients (but using only 50ml of the coconut milk to start with) to the bowl of a food processor or in a suitable container if you're going to use a stick blender.
   

2. Whizz all the ingredients together until almost smooth. Taste and add more fish or soy sauce, chilli flakes, lime juice etc. until the dressing is to your taste. It should be salty, sour, hot and sweet.
   

For the Salad

1. Mix together all the prepared vegetables and herbs in a large bowl.

   When ready to serve, pour over around half of the Thai Peanut Dressing and mix well to coat the vegetables. Add more dressing if liked.
   

To serve:

1. Drizzle a little more dressing over the salad.

   Sprinkle over the toasted peanuts, sesame seeds and sliced chillies.

   Serve with lime wedges on the side.
   

Recipe Notes

Any leftover dressing will keep in a jar in the fridge for up to 4 days.