Healthy Thai Chicken Salad {For 1!}

Ingredients Needed

This is just a preview of ingredients and method, keep scrolling for full printable recipe.

Salad

• Coleslaw cabbage mix – I almost always have a bag of coleslaw mix in my fridge.  I like it because it doesn’t wilt quickly, so I use a little bit here and there.  It’s great as a base to a salad like this, or tossed into a stir-fry or skillet meal.
• Shredded cooked chicken breast
• Quinoa – Another thing I often do is keep a container of cooked quinoa in my fridge.  Again, if I’m cooking some anyway for a recipe during the week, I just make extra.  Otherwise, I make a pot and just keep the container in the fridge.  It will last all week and I add it to my morning oatmeal (or you can turn it into an amazing breakfast dish), or a few spoonfuls to a bowl of soup, or mix it with ground beef, or in a salad like this.  With protein, fiber, and amino acids, It’s one of the world’s super foods, and if you have it all ready to go in your fridge, you’ll find yourself using it! (Click Here for a post all about quinoa- including how to cook it.)
• Green onion
• Edamame – Check the freezer section of your grocery store for bags of shelled edamame (not in their pods).  It makes it super quick and easy to just grab a handful and you can add it to all sorts of dishes.  Surprisingly, my kids even like to snack on these.
• Cilantro
• Cucumber

Dressing

• Creamy peanut butter or PB2 – For this Thai-inspired salad, I wanted a peanut flavored dressing.  While nut butters are absolutely a part of a healthy diet (and can certainly be used here) if I want to save on calories I use PB2.  If you’ve never heard of it, it’s basically powdered peanut butter.  It’s not some weird peanut-flavored powder, it’s actually 100% roasted peanuts that have been pressed and then the oil is removed.  The peanut part is ground up into basically a powder.  You can mix it with water to create peanut-butter consistency, or I just use it in the powdered form to add to things like smoothies.   It has a fraction of the calories of regular peanut butter (85% less fat calories).  I don’t use it for things like baking (c’mon, real peanut butter has it’s place!) but I do think it works great for things like this. I buy it from Amazon.
• Rice vinegar
• Olive oil
• Agave or honey
• Soy sauce
• Chopped cashews or peanuts
• Sriracha – Optional.

How to Make a Healthy Thai Chicken Salad

1. Combine your cabbage mix, chicken, quinoa, onion, edamame, cilantro, and cucumber.
2. Whisk up your dressing of peanut butter, rice vinegar, olive oil, agave (or honey), and soy sauce. If you want some heat, add a squirt of Sriracha or other hot sauce.
3. Toss your salad with the dressing, top with chopped nuts and a squeeze of lime, and enjoy!

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