Rainbow Thai Salad

Chock full of colorful, hearty veggies and drizzled with a sweet and tangy Thai inspired vinaigrette, this Rainbow Thai Salad is going to be your go to salad time and again! It is so quick and easy to throw together and lasts for days in the fridge. So make yourself a batch on meal prep day and enjoy it through out the week!

As I started to add more recipes to the blog, I realized I needed more salads and what better one to start with than one inspired by the one from my childhood.

South Asian cuisine doesn’t include boast very many salads. Apart from the Kachumbar, raita and achaar, we don’t really eat much raw veggies. We do, however, tend to eat more cooked vegetable dishes like this Zucchini with Scrambled Eggs, Baingan Bharta and Lauki to name just a few. And the only leafy greens you’ll see is the Palak (spinach) and Sarson (mustard greens)

But this Thai salad, this is one I remember my mom making for dinner parties. So I decided to recreate it with some minor tweaking. So let’s make it!

Table of Contents

• Why you’ll love this Thai salad
• Rainbow Thai Salad ingredients
• Thai dressing ingredients
• Recipe Tips
• Recipe Variations
• How to store Thai salad
• What to eat with Thai Salad

Why you’ll love this Thai salad

Lasts for days I purposely kept the heartier veggies in this salad so that there is no danger of wilting. I would keep the dressing and veggies separate but even if you do have leftovers, the veggies will just marinate in the dressing without any fear of spoilage. Try to eat the mixed salad within a day or two.

Meal prep friendly Make a batch of this salad and store it to enjoy through out the week. Because the veggies are hearty, they last for at least 5-6 days in the fridge. You can store the dressing separately in a jar or store the salad like I have in my Mason Jar Salad.

Vibrant & colorful True to its name, this Rainbow Thai Salad has (most of) the colors of the rainbow.

Accessible ingredients All the ingredients in this salad are easy to find and I’ve given alternatives below as well.

A great way to get your veggies in I could seriously eat this salad all day, everyday! I sometimes add leftover chicken or beef.

Rainbow Thai Salad ingredients

Cabbage Both green and red cabbage for the added pop of color. You can easily leave the red cabbage out if you can’t find it and even use Napa cabbage as many Thai salad recipes do.

Carrot No Thai salad is complete without carrots. I like to julienne mine since it is so easy with a Julienne Y-peeler (affiliate link). But you can matchstick them or even make carrot ribbons with a regular vegetable peeler.

Radish I decided to use radish for two reasons; it’s hearty and will retain its crunch for a couple of days in the dressing (if there are leftovers) and for its red color. I don’t use red bell pepper any more as we don’t enjoy raw bell pepper but it would work wonderfully here if you do.

Green onions Just the green part sliced thin. Feel free to add the white of the onions as well.

Herbs Cilantro and mint work really well in this salad. Use a pair of scissors to snip the leaves as chopping them will bruise the herbs.

Nuts I have used sliced almonds but you can use peanuts or even cashews.

Thai dressing ingredients

The four components of authentic Thai dressing are as follows:

• Fish sauce: I wanted to make this recipe easily accessible for people and so I intentionally switched out the fish sauce but authentic Thai dressings include fish sauce. A good substitute is soy sauce/coconut aminos/tamari
• Lime juice: The acid in the dressing.
• Sugar: The sweet component.
• Chilies: Authentic Thai recipes have fresh green or red chili peppers that are crushed in a mortar and pestle along with the other ingredients. I have used red pepper flakes instead.

Recipe Tips

The full instructions are in the recipe card below but here are a few tips to make this Thai salad extra special.

• Use hearty vegetables to prolong the life of this salad. Cabbage, carrots and radish all last longer than most veggies. Water rich and delicate veggies like tomatoes and lettuce would spoil much faster.
• Use the right tools to speed up the prep and for the best results. Use a mandolin (affiliate link) for the perfect shredded cabbage. It is the perfect bite, not too thin, not too thick. Plus it’s so much faster too! And a julienne peeler is a game changer when it comes to carrots!
• Add herbs and dressing just before serving the salad.
• Don’t over dress the salad This salad only needs a thin coating of the dressing. It is best not to drown it in the dressing. Of course this is based on your preference.

Recipe Variations

• Use other veggies Feel free to use other hearty veggies like bell peppers in place of or in addition to the ones above. You can also use red onions and kale for a leafy green addition.
• Make it a meal You can throw in some protein. Beef, chicken, shrimp and chickpeas are all great choices.
• Swap out the ingredients There are a lot of options when it comes to the dressing as well. Soy sauce can easily be used in place of the coconut aminos if you’re not gluten sensitive. Want to make it vegan, just use coconut sugar in place of honey. Doing Keto, use monk fruit sweetener or stevia. Use vinegar in place of lime juice.

How to store Thai salad

You can store the salad without the herbs and dressing in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.

If you have dressed salad leftovers, it will still keep till the next day or two.

What to eat with Thai Salad

I often serve Khao Suey with this salad as they both have similar flavor profiles. Also, my Chicken Nuggets or Chicken 65 recipe would make this salad a complete meal.

This Rainbow Thai Salad recipe was originally published in August 2021 but updated with new pictures and information for your benefit.