I spy a noodle salad with peanut lime dressing that wants to loooove you. ♡
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I made this tonight and everyone loved it! My kids are picky eaters and they are almost an entire bowl each. Wonderful recipe!! Thanks!
Kristin
Annnnnd we are back on track!
Er, okay, getting there, at least. With the help of this friendly little peanut noodle salad and its packed-in veggies, protein, healthy fats, and major flavor, I am doing some post-girls’-trip resetting to get back to the norm of solid healthy eating. And by “norm”, I mean the first time in a few months thanks to all that first trimester craziness. Just let me pretend.
Our girls’ trip to San Diego this weekend was just… well, it was a lot of different things. Mostly it was really nice to get away from Facebook and CNN and NPR radio news for a few days, and to have 4-hour extended happy hour sessions and watch seals flopping in and out of the ocean and pop in for a little ice cream at 11am because it’s California and WHY NOT. We soaked up the sun and the ocean, we had pizza delivered to our room for a midnight snack, and we reconnected over slow meals in sweet, hard, and meaningful ways.
I’ll tell you more about it later this week – I have just a few pictures to share. 😬 And I want to talk more in depth about everything that’s going on right now, because is it just me? Or does it feel like things are kinda heavy? I am still mentally working out how to even talk about it.
But for today, I’m just giving my food life to you in real-time. I got home from the trip on Sunday night, did a reset on Monday including a speedy fast trip to the grocery store, and found myself yesterday chopping like a ninja and then devouring this salad as a “detox” back into normal person eating (a tad generous with the term detox, maybe, yes, leave me alone I’M PREG).
I felt the need for both veggies and protein, and even though I’m usually 100% picky and weird about chicken, this chicken was okay for me. I marinated it and then baked it so it was perfectly cooked and flavorful. Alright! Not bad, Linds. Not bad. I picked out a few of my favorite colorful vegetables for a peanut noodle salad situation (peppers, spinach, carrots) and then tossed it all with stir fried brown rice noodles and a quick and easy punchy Thai-inspired peanut lime dressing. The written recipe looks like a lot of work, and it does take a little time to prep each part, but it’s in that therapeutic way where you feel like you have really given your food the time and intention it deserves. Without it taking more than 45 minutes.
All in all, this salad is kind of a cousin of a few other salads I have on the blog (think Spicy Peanut Soba Noodle Salad, Thai Chicken Salad, Vietnamese Chicken Salad w Noodles, Chopped Thai Salad: vegetarian version), but tailored to what I exactly wanted and had on hand at the particular moment yesterday, which was a way to reset to healthy, veggie-and-protein packed eating that didn’t taste lonely and depressing.
Let me check – NOPE. No depressed feelings here.
Just a happy, back-on-track Peanut Noodle Salad with that extra-limey dressing, for the love of all things wonderful.
Source notes: The flavors in this noodle salad are Thai-inspired, but this isn’t a true authentic Thai salad. Ingredients like soy sauce, lemongrass, and lime are bright, fresh, and a bit easier for us to find locally. For a more authentic Thai salad, we’d suggest this Glass Noodle Salad made by Pai from Hot Thai Kitchen.
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Peanut Noodle Salad
- Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes
- Yield: 6 1x
Description
Peanut Noodle Salad – veggies, chicken, brown rice noodles, and an easy homemade dressing. My favorite salad ever!
Ingredients
For the dressing:
- 1/2 cup canola oil
- 2 large cloves garlic, peeled
- 1/3 cup low sodium soy sauce
- 1/4 cup white distilled vinegar
- 2 tablespoons water
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 2 tablespoons sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon lemongrass or ginger paste
- a couple BIG squeezes of lime juice (to taste)
- 1/4 cup peanut butter
For the salad:
- 4 ounces brown rice noodles (affiliate link)
- 1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 5–6 cups baby kale or spinach
- 3 large carrots, cut into small, thin pieces*
- 3 bell peppers, cut into small, thin pieces*
- 1 cup packed cilantro leaves, chopped
- 4 green onions, green parts only, chopped
- 1/2 cup cashews or peanuts
Instructions
- PREP: Start soaking the rice noodles in a bowl of cold water. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
- DRESSING: Pulse all the dressing ingredients in a food processor EXCEPT peanut butter. Place the chicken in a plastic bag and use about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of the dressing (without peanut butter) to marinate the chicken in the fridge for about 15-30 minutes. Add the peanut butter to the dressing in the food processor; pulse, then taste and adjust. Set aside.
- VEGGIES: Prep all your veggies and toss together in a bowl.
- CHICKEN: Bake the marinated chicken for 15-20 minutes. Rest for 5-10 minutes, then cut and add to the veggies.
- NOODLES: Drain the noodles (they should be softened at this point). Finish cooking them in a skillet over medium high heat. Add a little oil and a little dressing and toss them around until they are soft and pliable (if you need to add a little water to soften them, that works, too).
- ASSEMBLY: Toss stir-fried noodles with the chicken and veggie mixture. Serve hot or cold. Top with extra peanuts and cilantro (and dressing, and lime juice, and sesame seeds, and…)
Notes
*You can cut the carrots and peppers however you like, really. But I like to cut them so they sort of match the shape and texture of the noodles. A spiralizer, peeler, or mandoline are my favorite tools for this. The bowls used in this post are from Target!
- Prep Time: 45 mins
- Cook Time: 20 mins
- Category: Dinner
- Cuisine: Thai-Inspired
Keywords: thai noodle salad, thai noodles, thai salad
NOTE: This post contains affiliate links.
One More Thing!
This recipe is part of our best healthy spring recipes page. Check it out!
Making this tonight. Dressing is superb.
If I wanted to make the dressing only for the salad (i.e., not use it to marinate the chicken), how much peanut butter would I add? This was great the first time I made it (per the recipe), but the second time I wanted to do something differently with the chicken and couldn’t get that same level of peanut butter flavor!
You could try using 1/2 cup peanut butter. Otherwise, check out this post for our Very Best Peanut Sauce.
So crazy easy and perfect for vegetarians and meat eaters in the same family! It can be made with or without the chicken which was perfect for my daughter and me. I just prepped it in two bowls, one with lots of baby kale and peppers for us, the other with just a handful for the boys. The boys loved the sauce and the noodles especially. Next time I’ll skip the stirfry step for the noodles at the end because it just dirties up a pan and I don’t think it really added anything. Loved it! 😀
I’ve made this recipe probably 10 times now (and I’m not planning on stopping :P). When I say I want “the peanut noodle salad recipe” for dinner my husband always know what I’m talking about.
The sauce is so delicious. I found that omitting the water works best for me, but this may be due to the type of noodles I use. (I use Lotus Foods pad Thai brown rice noodles.) It seems to make a thicker sauce that sticks to everything a bit better. I also shred all my veggies using the food processor, which makes quick work of it. I often add in radishes, celery or any other stray veggies in our fridge and it’s ALWAYS perfect.
Thank you for the healthy delicious recipe that never gets old!!
I’ve made this recipe probably 10 times now (and I’m not planning on stopping :P). When I say I want “the peanut noodle salad recipe” for dinner my husband always know what I’m talking about.
The sauce is so delicious. I found that omitting the water works best for me, but this may be due to the type of noodles I use. (I use Lotus Foods pad Thai brown rice noodles.) It seems to make a thicker sauce that sticks to everything a bit better. I also shred all my veggies using the food processor, which makes quick work of it. I often add in radishes, celery or any other stray veggies in our fridge and it’s ALWAYS perfect.
Thank you for the healthy delicious recipe that never gets old!!
I have made this countless times and love it! It’s certainly a staple in our house. I adapted it to be more of a stir fry – so I saute the veggies. I’m currently pregnant and have a huge aversion to chicken. Do you think beef would be a good substitute? I just can’t picture it.
This was great! I made it without the chicken (served with your baked meatballs recipe actually) and used cold soba noodles instead of rice noodles. Will make again.
Love that you served with the meatballs! Great idea!
Made this last night and it is fantastic! Used the Trader Joes yellow lentil and brown rice spaghetti noodles and they were great. Delivered it to a couple of friends and they immediately asked for the recipe after they tried it. I printed it and put in my salad binder to make again!!
Could this be more perfect? Love this cold noodle meal idea. It’s amazing for the summer! Thanks for sharing.
So delicious! Perfect zip to the dressing and it was just the right amount for the veggies in the salad. Thank you for the recipe!
So glad you enjoyed it, Ana!
Oh goodness…this is beyond amazing!! My family just couldn’t stop eating (me too…). Thanks so much for another delicious recipe!!
So glad it was a hit, Annalene!
So, so good! Instead of chicken I used edamame and added purple cabbage (sort of combined with the other Thai salad recipe on the site). Delicious!
My family loves this recipe
Would almond butter work instead of the penut butter?
Yes, almond butter will work!
This post made me laugh! haha I was exactly like that when I was pregnant, lovely recipe can’t wait to try it!
Enjoy, Laura!
We love this salad. To make it a little simpler I use a bag of pre-prepared coldslaw mix, add green onion and carrot matchstix. Absolutely delicious.
Great idea, Jodi!
My family loved this. I mixed the dressing with cabbage salad, carrots and green onion, chicken and noodles. Great as a cold summer salad.
Yes! Love that idea, Jodi!
My partner and I make a variation of this almost every single weekend with whatever veggies we have on hand. This is such an easy, quick, and flavourful meal! An exciting way to get veggies in 🙂 I hope everyone makes this!
😊
Loved this! Had it for supper with the fam and they want it again tomorrow. Thanks
Glad to hear it, Lorilyn!
I’m from Canada and can’t get the brown rice noodles here. What is an alternative for the noodles.
Thanks!
Hi, Jasmine! Regular rice noodles can work here, too. 🙂
I love this salad and the dressing! Thanks for sharing. I’m wondering, is it Gluten Free? I’m making this for a large group lunch and one of our guests is GF and rice-free, so I was going to prep the brown rice noodles separately so she could leave those out, but are the salad and the dressing both GF?
Hi, Gwen! There’s soy sauce in this recipe (which contains gluten). You could use coconut aminos or tamari as a gluten-free substitute.
thanks for useful information.
Thank you for your very useful information.
This is so GOOD. Lindsay you did it again
Just bought some noodles the other day and getting back on track with eating right.
This looks sooo good! I’m looking forward to trying it.