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I had to leave a review because this recipe is just so delicious! Perfect for a hot day when you don’t want to cook. I added other veg like chopped zucchini, cucumbers and avocado, and some marinated white beans and canned tuna for protein. The roasted peanut oil is genius. Thank you!
Michelle
This Roasted Peanut Kale Crunch Salad is SO yummy! I am very picky about kale in a salad, and this one is so pleasant to eat because of the finely chopped texture on the kale! Plus it’s juiced up and slicked down in the best way possible with a light roasted peanut vinaigrette that is slightly sweet and just really delightful.
In This Post: Everything You Need For Roasted Peanut Kale Crunch Salad
- Take Me To The Salad Recipe
- Watch How to Make This Recipe
- Lindsay’s Notes
- A Walk-Through On How To Make This
- FAQs
- Reviews
Watch How To Make This Kale Crunch Salad
Lindsay’s Notes
Holy moly, I’ve lost count of how many times we’ve eaten this salad in the last few weeks! It is absolutely one of my new favorite salads.
First of all, let it be known that roasted peanut vinaigrette is the only way I want to live from here on out. It gives all the flavor of a peanut dressing but none of the heaviness; it’s much lighter and saucier, getting into every nook and cranny of this salad the way a regular peanut dressing wouldn’t be able to. It’s fantastic. Plus, the texture on the cabbage and the kale makes this salad TRULY ENJOYABLE to eat, and tossing it all up with some peanuts and thinly sliced fresno peppers makes this crunchy, spicy, filling, and perfect.
The typical order of events for this salad is:
- I make it for lunch.
- We have the rest of it for dinner.
It actually lasts shockingly well, even with dressing on it, because the kale and cabbage are so hearty! I often enjoy our dinner leftovers as much as I did the original lunch salad because the kale softens even more as it sits in the dressing.
But we don’t always do this all in one day – it works great for meal prep as well. I’ve been known to tuck a container of the shredded up kale, cabbage, and herbs in the fridge, plus a container of the dressing, and basically just toss together individual salads all week long for amazingly fast little lunch salads that I always, always look forward to.
You can eat this salad on its own, and I often do, especially as a lunch salad! Or you can do what we did last night for dinner and throw some herby shrimp on the side with a hunk of buttered bread. Or what we did the night before – serving it alongside leftover grilled chicken and rice.
This roasted peanut kale crunch salad is my new BFF.
How To Make This Roasted Peanut Kale Crunch Salad
Step 1: Make a Quick Roasted Peanut Vinaigrette
Whisk or blitz a quick little roasted peanut vinaigrette! The magic ingredient here is the roasted peanut oil (affiliate link) – it gives this dressing the taste of a peanut dressing but maintains a light, silky vinaigrette texture. This might require a trip to a separate store depending on where you shop, but when you find it, I’d recommend buying multiple bottles – I’ve very quickly gone through 2 bottles with several batches of this salad!
If you can’t find roasted peanut oil or just honestly don’t want to bother with finding it (I get it), you could use this peanut dressing, or use avocado oil in its place for a different flavor but similar texture.
Step 2: Chop Your Veggies
I do these ones by hand: cilantro, green onion, fresno peppers, and peanuts.
Step 3: Finely Chop Your Greens
Finely chop your kale and cabbage in a food processor for the ultimate in teeny-tiny chopped texture. I would recommend cutting the vegetables into chunks first so they process more evenly and doing this in several batches. If they start to release too much water, just give them a gentle pat or squeeze with a paper towel.
You can store the kale and cabbage together in one bowl or container!
Step 4: Combine It All
Toss your dressing, peppers, herbs, peanuts, and greens all together! ENJOY YOUR LIFE!
Roasted Peanut Kale Crunch Salad
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: 4–6 servings 1x
Description
OOOH BABY, this salad is so good! Crunchy kale and cabbage, fresh herbs and fresno peppers, chopped peanuts, and a perfect roasted peanut vinaigrette that tucks into all the salad nooks and crannies.
Ingredients
Kale Crunch Salad:
- 4 large stalks kale, stems removed
- half a head of green cabbage
- 2 small fresno peppers, sliced
- 1 cup peanuts, chopped
- 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
- 1/2 cup chopped green onions
Roasted Peanut Vinaigrette:
- 1/2 cup roasted peanut oil
- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 1 clove garlic
- 2 1/2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt (more to taste)
- freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Make the Roasted Peanut Vinaigrette: Blend all ingredients in a small blender or food processor until smooth. (This is mostly to incorporate the garlic, so if you’d rather, you can grate the garlic into the jar with the other ingredients and shake thoroughly to combine.)
- Prep the Salad: Chop your herbs, peanuts, and fresno peppers.
- Chop the Kale and Cabbage: Using a food processor, pulse the kale and cabbage in batches until it is very finely chopped, stopping before the greens get too mushy. If they release too much water, just give them a gentle squeeze with a paper towel. Transfer to a large bowl.
- Mix and Serve: Toss your kale and cabbage with some of the dressing; massage it together with your hands for a minute to make sure the kale is tender! Add peanuts, peppers, and the rest of the dressing. YUM!
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Category: Salad
- Method: Chop
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: peanut salad, kale peanut salad, kale crunch salad
Frequently Asked Questions For Roasted Peanut Kale Crunch Salad
You can make this salad dressing with avocado oil in place of the peanut oil – the flavor will change quite significantly (less peanut flavor, obviously), but the texture will be similar! Or, if you want to keep the peanut flavor, you could use this amazing peanut dressing / sauce.
Once you toss it all together, it lasts pretty well in the fridge for 4-6 hours.
Toss the kale, cabbage, and herbs together; store all together in one container in the fridge. Slice the peppers; store in the fridge. Blitz the dressing; store in the fridge. Chop the peanuts; store at room temperature. When you’re ready to eat, assemble your salad elements!
I have made this with grilled chicken, air fryer chicken, shrimp, and edamame! It would also be delicious with these crispy chicken cutlets.
This is gluten-free and dairy-free as written!
Yes – I would recommend using a mandoline instead of chopping by hand to get a very fine shredded texture! But if all you have is a knife, that will work, too! 🙂 Just chop everything very finely.
What can you use in place of the Sugar?
I have made a version of this salad every day for over a month. Sometimes I add taco meat, fixings, and ranch dressing. Sometimes I add purple cabbage and mint, then use Thai dressing (fish sauce, lime juice, sugar, garlic, chilies). Sometimes I add mint and tandoori or shawarma chicken plus Trader Joe’s vegan Creamy Dill dressing. There is no end to the ways to enjoy this!
This is so good! I’m making for the 2nd time in two weeks now.
New favourite salad. Didn’t have a green cabbage so used a napa cabbage instead and it is fantastic. You are right about the roasted peanut oil. I found it on Amazon and it makes a big difference! Thank you so much for another fantastic recipe!!
This is absolutely delicious. I don’t have roasted peanut oil so I made the peanut sauce (well half the recipe) and added the ingredients to that instead of the peanut oil, and oh my gosh, it was so good! It would be good on everything. My sister loved it and told me to keep the recipe so she can make it for her pot stickers. Thank you for this recipe! It is delightful.
Made this for the first time tonight for visiting guests. It was so good! I used sesame oil instead of peanut oil, and also, I roasted my peanuts in a dry stainless steel pan for 10 minutes on low before adding them to the salad. I added raw pumpin seeds too, because, why not? 🙂 A quick, great summer salad recipe, thank you- everyone loved it.
Oh, and instead of sugar, I used honey (3 tbsp), and an extra splash of rice vinegar. 🙂 worked out nicely!
So tasty! I’ve had this salad on rotation for the past two summers now. It’s so delicious and I add different protein in to mix it up!
I doubled the amount of kale and it served only 2! But it was totally delicious. I added some Costco chicken on top, double belly rubs!
This came out very wet for me and did not hold up in the fridge even over night, it’s goo now. Love the flavor combos but I either did something wrong or this texture just isn’t for me. I’m going to make it again using the food chopper instead of the food processor and I’m going to do the vinegarette instead of the peanut dressing. I couldn’t find peanut oil but I will have to order it before I make it again. The Fresno peppers are so dang good! Not one I usually use and now I’m hooked on them.
Absolutely 1,000% worth seeking out roasted peanut oil. The dressing is amazing. I had some leftover coconut rice in the fridge, so I tossed it in a little chili oil and toasted it in the air fryer. Such a good combo to have crispy rice on top of this salad! Even if Fresno chilis aren’t your thing, you can easily leave them out or serve them in the side and it’s still so so good.
Could I sub red cabbage for the green? I happen to have one in the crisper.
Yes!
This was so, so good! I only used 1.5 tsp of sugar, and it was still fantastic. It hit all the right notes and will be on permanent repeat at my house.
This is delicious and the peanuts have a lovely crunch! Made it for lunch and it’s a keeper. I didn’t make the dressing in order to reduce the calories but still lovely with a little balsamic vinegar.
Oh. My. God. This salad is DELICIOUS. And nothing makes me happier than an amazing salad.
Like many folks said, it was hard to find the roasted peanut oil but it really made the salad. Now I know exactly where to find it in the future! I used fresno peppers from a jar and those worked great. This is going to be a regular salad for me.
The dressing alone is worth making this! No roasted peanut oil where I live, and I couldn’t wait for delivery. I roasted my peanuts for the salad, used 1/4 cup in my dressing and blitzed the dressing all up until smooth and somewhat creamy. It was incredible, thanks so much for this recipe.
I love love this salad. I wasn’t sure how the sugar was going to play with the dressing but it was perfect! This will be a salad I make on repeat !Thank You!
This is hands down my favorite salad. When I brought it to a dinner party, people could not get enough.
I love how adaptable it is. I’ve added edamame and mint, depending on what I have in my fridge.
This is amazing! I used sesame oil and it was fantastic.
This recipe has been mine and my fiancé’s obsession for the past month, we have made variations of it!
This salad has become a hit at my house and has made it’s way into our weekly rotation. Love the combination of flavors!
This salad is sooo delicious ! I bought the stuff to make it – ate it all and immediately made another. This will be a regular in my rotation of plant based salads. I used avocado oil and threw in a heaping TBSP of peanut butter to get the peanutty flavor.
How do you make “roasted” peanut oil?
This is so delicious! I added some vermicelli noodles to it and so damn good!!
Delicious salad ! The kale this way it is easier to eat. I didnt found peanut oil so I read in the comment someone did it with olive oil and a bit of peanut butter and it was delicious. We loved it !!
We had a yen for Oriental food today so tried this recipe. Delicious salad! I have Thai basil growing in my herb garden, so added a handful. Served alongside crispy air fryer wings! Awesome!!