Crunchy Asian Salad with Sesame Peanut Dressing
Crunchy Asian Salad with sesame peanut dressing is loaded with chopped veggies for a quick power-packed lunch. It’s a flavorful and easy meal prep recipe. (Vegetarian and vegan version in recipe notes)
If you eat salad for lunch almost every day, you know the struggle for salad options is real. It can get prettttyy boring in the salad-eating world.
This healthy, chopped Asian salad is made with grilled chicken, a mixture of shredded Brussels sprouts, cabbage and lettuce and topped with slivered almonds, sesame seeds and an amazing (and easy!) orange sesame peanut dressing.
Red bell peppers, carrots and broccoli are also added to the mix for a boost of vitamins and texture.
A delicious upgrade to your typical salad recipe and it’s loaded with nutrients, crunch and flavor!
If you read my Thai Meatballs post, you got the gist that Asian inspired foods are my favorite, so that’s why this salad recipe is one of my favorite lunch meal prep recipes…
I can take it to work five days a week and not get sick of eating it, and for me, that’s a hard thing to come by!
Soy sauce + Peanut Butter + Ginger are three ingredients that I’ll never say no to. They’re the dream team combination.
Because the dressing is the holy grail of any salad, I had to make sure this sesame peanut dressing recipe was on point. I mean sure, the ingredients in the actual salad are important too, but who can bear to eat a salad if the dressing isn’t delish?!?
Not this girl…that’s for sure. If I’m behaving myself by eating salad for lunch it BETTER taste good.
The orange sesame peanut dressing is made with:
- Soy Sauce
- Sesame Oil
- Fresh Grated Ginger
- Garlic
- Peanut Butter
- Fresh Orange Juice
- Honey (or agave for Vegan version)
(Even if you don’t care for the salad itself, at least you know the sesame peanut dressing alone is drool-worthy!).
You can even use the dressing as a marinade for chicken or shrimp!
This crunchy Asian Salad with sesame peanut dressing is not only tasty and easy to make, but loaded with nutrients, fiber and protein for a clean eating lunch recipe you can prep ahead for the week.
See recipe notes for an easy vegetarian or vegan version!
For more easy and healthy lunch recipes try my:
No Mayo Avocado Tuna Salad
Vegetarian Lentil Kale Bowls with Creamy Lemon Dressing
Greek Cauliflower Rice Bowls
Healthy Winter Vegetable Lentil Soup
PS. Are you obsessed with Pinterest for saving and categorizing recipe ideas? Have you tried out the Yummly app?
It’s along the same idea of sharing and storing your favorite recipes…you can even type in specific ingredients you have on hand and it will filter out recipes specifically for those ingredients! Pretty cool and a HUGE dinner helper :).
Wine a Little Cook a Lot is now a publisher on Yummly so you can easily use the yum button (the orange Y looking one) that’s at the beginning of each of my posts to save your favorite recipes from the blog to your own recipe box on Yummly.
Find Wine a Little, Cook a Lot’s recipe collections by clicking here
I think you’ll dig it. Happy recipe searching/saving!!!
Crunchy Asian Salad with Sesame Peanut Dressing
Ingredients
Crunchy Asian Salad
- 8 oz Shredded Brussels Sprouts about 1 cup
- 2 cups Shredded Cabbage purple, green or mix
- 1 cup Shredded Lettuce
- 1 cup Shredded Carrots
- 1 Cucumber diced
- 1 Head Broccoli cut into small florets
- 1 Bell Pepper cut into small pieces
- 4 Green Onions sliced
- ½ cup Slivered Almonds
- ¼ cup Sesame seeds
Orange Sesame Peanut Dressing
- 2 tbsp Honey
- 2 tbsp Olive oil
- 1 tbsp Sesame Oil
- 1/3 cup Rice Wine Vinegar
- 3 tbsp Soy Sauce reduced sodium
- 2 tbsp Orange Juice about ½ an orange
- 1 tbsp Fresh grated Ginger
- 2 cloves Garlic minced
- 3 tbsp Peanut Butter
Instructions
-
Place salad ingredients in large bowl. Toss to combine.
-
For Dressing: combine all ingredients in Mason jar or airtight container with lid. Shake vigorously until combined. You can also do this in your food processor or blender for a smoother dressing.
Recipe Notes
*For shredded Brussels sprouts, either use food processor until shredded or you can use a sharp knife and finely chop.
*This salad can be made ahead and stored in an airtight container for meal prep. Keep the dressing on the side in a separate container.
*For a vegetarian option, omit the chicken.
*For a vegan option, omit the chicken and replace the honey with agave.
That dressing sounds incredible! Yum!
I love the combination of flavours so much.
Thank you Alexandra, yes the dressing is my favorite part 🙂
Can’t wait to try this!!