Chopped Thai Salad

I’m officially in love with this salad. It has so many different vegetables, fun textures thanks to the cashews, and with a dressing that just brings it together so perfectly! And of course it’s so colourful which I love in my food.

Although this recipe is super simple, be warned the chopping process to be able to get everything so finely sliced does take a while. I actually ended up using a julienne peeler for the carrots just to save time. That’s the only downside to this though, I promise!

Some vegetables, like peppers, are best eaten raw to obtain the maximum nutrients from them, and this salad is jam-packed with all the nutrients you could possibly want (ok, apart from B12). I also used Manuka honey in the dressing, which I’d never tried out before despite its health claims, and it complimented the other ingredients perfectly. Obviously though the star of the dressing is definitely the peanut butter, because nothing beats nut butter, ever.

This recipe came about thanks to a collaboration campaign with Holland and Barrett for Manuka honey – so thanks to them for inspiring this!

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

1 red bell pepper
1 yellow bell pepper
2 medium carrots (around 150g)
3 spring onions
100g edamame
100g spinach
20g fresh coriander
50g cashews

For the dressing:
Juice from 1 lime
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp honey
1.5 tbsp lemongrass paste (or Thai green curry paste)
2 tbsp peanut butter
1 tbsp oil (olive or sesame works best)

What to do:

• Finely slice the peppers, carrots, and spinach into thin strips, and chop the spring onions and coriander
• Mix everything together in a large bowl with the edamame and cashews
• Blend together the dressing ingredients and pour them over the salad, and toss to combine
• Serve immediate or tore in an airtight container for up to 3 days