This refreshing Thai-style salad with greens, herbs, veggies and shrimp, all tossed in a delicious cashew dressing, is the perfect one-dish summer dinner.
Spicy Thai Shrimp Salad
The spicy cashew dressing is so good, you’ll want to put it on everything!
Guest post from Heather K. Jones, dietitian and the nutrition expert for the Skinnytaste cookbooks.
Hi Everyone, I’m Heather K. Jones. I’m a registered dietitian and the founder of Feel Better Eat Better, an online weight loss program for women who struggle with emotional eating, binge eating, overeating or body image issues.
When I moved to Old Town Alexandria Virginia a few years ago I was thrilled to discover a Sweetgreen, a fast-casual restaurant chain with “simple, seasonal, healthy salads and grain bowls, right around the corner from our house!
This salad is inspired by one of my Sweetgreen favorites, and trust me, the spicy cashew dressing is so good, you’ll want to put it on everything!
More Asian Salad Recipes You May Like:
- Asian Lettuce Wrap Chicken Chopped Salad
- Asian Chopped Salad with Sesame Soy Vinaigrette
- Vietnamese Shaking Beef Salad
- Bang Bang Shrimp
Spicy Thai Shrimp Salad
Ingredients
For Spicy Cashew Dressing:
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 3 tablespoons lime juice
- ¼ cup whole roasted, salted cashews
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 2 teaspoons honey
- 1 2-inch piece fresh ginger, roughly chopped
- 1 tablespoon unseasoned rice vinegar
- ¼ cup cilantro
- 1 clove garlic, roughly chopped
- ¼ cup roughly chopped white onion
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
For Shrimp:
- ½ pound large peeled, deveined tail-off shrimp
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/8 teaspoon turmeric
- 1/8 teaspoon chili powder
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
For Salad:
- 1 cup shredded purple cabbage
- 1 ½ cups packed baby arugula
- 1 ½ cups packed chopped romaine lettuce
- 1 small corn cob, kernels removed
- ½ medium cucumber, peeled, seeded and diced
- ½ cup shredded carrots
- 2 tablespoons chopped basil
- 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
- Lime wedges, for serving
Instructions
For dressing:
- In a small blender or food processor, combine dressing ingredients.
- Refrigerate and set aside until ready to use.
For shrimp:
- Pat shrimp dry with a paper towel.
- In a medium bowl, combine all spices from garlic powder to pepper.
- Add the shrimp and sesame oil and toss gently to evenly coat.
- Heat a medium non-stick skillet over medium heat. Cook shrimp 2 minutes per side or until cooked through.
- Transfer to a plate or cutting board and allow to cool and rest while you assemble the salad.
For salad:
- In a large bowl, toss together the cabbage, arugula and romaine. Transfer mixture to 2 salad bowls or plates.
- Top each with half the shrimp, corn, cucumber, carrots, basil and cilantro.
- Evenly drizzle the dressing over both salads and serve with lime wedges.
Last Step:
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Photo Credit: Jess Larson
Is corn raw?
Haven’t tried this recipe yet….could I use peanut butter in the dressing instead of cashews?
Delicious! I especially loved the salad dressing. You nailed the Thai restaurant flavors I love but could never quite put my finger on what all’s in there…
So, so, so good!!!! A ton of flavor and the dressing is to die for! I’ve made it a ton since coming across the recipe a couple months ago.
My wife and I loved it. Didn’t change much of anything. Substituted peanuts for cashews as didn’t have any. Increased the acids and oil since there’s 3 of us (and doubled all the shrimp section).
Great!
Didn’t care for it. Cilantro was too strong. Will try it again with chicken, romain, and a bit more oil in the dressing
Fantastic flavors, will do again. As is, the recipe is perfect! It’s good to keep in mind that the recipe is forgiving if you need to sub or add anything (as we’re all doing during quarantine to avoid leaving the house!) I’ve added grilled pineapple on the side to expand and don’t regret it at all!
Works well. Doubled the shrimp and coating.
Just made this for the second time — so yummy and filling! I used chicken tenders instead of shrimp, and added extra rice wine vinegar to the dressing to get more servings out of it without adding a lot of calories. Life hack – I do this with all my salad dressing.
Do you provide grocery shopping lists for your recipes?
This was amazing!!! I had no cabbage and arugula so I used baby gem lettuce instead, my partner just cleared his plate as well. The flavours are very intense, if you love thai food go for it 🙂
This was a delicious recipe. Followed the instructions but added a jalapeño into the spicy cashew dressing and it was the right amount of heat for me and my husband.
People had commented about the ginger taste being strong but I have to disagree, I thought it was the exact amount.
I also did add a little extra water to the dressing and don’t think it altered the taste.
This is really delicious. Thank you for the recipe!
How long will the dressing last in the fridge?
Loved it!! Loaded with flavor. Delish.
How many servings is this? Sounds amazing!
Serves 2. Serving size and nutritional info are always located under the recipe directions 🙂
Sooo delicious! The spicy cashew dressing was so flavorful and paired perfectly with the shrimp and salad! Both my husband and I loved it!
I’ve only had Thai style food a few times and was a bit skeptical about trying this. I am so happy I did! The flavours were amazing! The combination of everything was surprising and literally felt like a pleasant explosion of flavours. I made a few modifications as well. I added pieces of mango as suggested below in the comments, and adding this really made the dish tie everything in together with the added sweet/juicy factor. I did not have arugula, so I simply used iceburg lettuce. The dressing was a bit too thick for my liking; so as others below did, I added a bit of water which perfect the consistency. I doubled the recipe for meal prep lunches for the week, and I am so happy I did because I can’t wait to have this for lunch. Will definitely be making this again. The best part: this kept me full for hours! This surprised me because I naturally am ALWAYS hungry. I was full for several hours and felt extremely satisfied. The only con: was a bit more time consuming then other salads I’ve made, however the extra time was well worth it! Thank you yet again for another recipe!
I just made it today and i loved it! Thanks for helping me kick start my way to a healthier me in 2019!
So good! Had to substitute a few things to accomdste what i had on hand- iceberg, mixed greens, canned corn- and no basil- but it tasted wonderful. Strong flavors and quite filling. Will make again.
Could I use a nut butter instead of the nuts for the dressing???
sure
We used the shrimp and dressing components of this recipe and used them for shrimp tacos! We topped them with julienned carrot, cucumber, cilantro, and jalapeño and it was outstanding! Thank you so much for the recipe!
We made these for lunches this week (we put them in mason jars). I subbed chicken for the shrimp, and it was delish! Thank you for another great lunch!
Thank you for the recipe, we loved it! A couple changes I made – I don’t like ginger, so omitted that, the dressing was fantastic to my taste, but a little too thick, i just added a tablespoon of water and because the flavours are so intense I didn’t think it did any harm taste-wise, just helped coat the greens better. I also used less of the spices for the shrimps, I thought it might overpower the dressing, and it probably would have for me. great recipe though, thank you!