Recipe: Thai Peanut Quinoa Salad by Crowded Kitchen

This Thai Peanut Quinoa Salad by Crowded Kitchen is full of a rainbow of crunchy vegetables and is a fantastic gluten free lunch or dinner option! It’s full of flavour, with a creamy peanut sauce, tasty vegetables and lots of our favourite goodies!

This salad has so many delicious ingredients, including lots of vegetables for nutrients and vitamins, good carbohydrates for energy and healthy fats for cell growth and organ support. This salad is gluten free and vegan and can also be nut free if you swap the peanut butter with sunflower seed butter or tahini. It is also the perfect way to get your little ones to eat a variety of vegetables!

Ingredients

• 1 cup dry quinoa*

• 3 carrots, shredded, peeled into strips or sliced thinly

• 1 yellow bell pepper, sliced thinly

• 3 scallions, sliced thinly

• A quarter of a head of red cabbage, sliced thinly*

• For garnish: cashews and/or sesame seeds

Peanut Sauce:

• 1/3 cup creamy peanut butter

• 1/4 cup water

• 3 tbsp tamari or soy sauce (we used low sodium)

• 2 tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice

• 1 tbsp toasted (or regular) sesame oil

• 1 tbsp sriracha 

• 1 tbsp coconut sugar (or brown sugar)

• 1/2 tsp ground ginger (can sub with 1 tsp freshly grated ginger)

• Optional: 1 ½ tbsp white sesame seeds

Instructions

1. Cook quinoa according to package directions. 

2. Meanwhile, prepare vegetables. Add to a large bowl and toss with cooked quinoa. 

3. To make peanut sauce, whisk all ingredients together until smooth and creamy. Taste and adjust as desired. Pour over quinoa/vegetable mixture and toss well to coat. 

4. Top with cashews, sesame seeds, more scallions and lime slices (optional). Enjoy warm or cold! 

Notes: *Optional: instead of cooking quinoa in water, cook in 2 cups of vegetable broth for more flavor. *For more flavor, we quick pickle the red cabbage before adding to this recipe. This is an optional step. To do so, first slice the cabbage into thin strips. Add to a heat-safe bowl and pour 2 cups of boiling water over top. Let sit for one minute, then drain. Return to bowl and add juice from 1 1/2 large limes, 1 1/2 tsp sugar and 1/2 tsp of salt. Stir well and let sit for one hour before using. Allergic to peanuts? Sub with tahini or sunbutter.