Pad Thai Cafe (Salad)
We love an easy Pad Thai Cafe Salad – a pad thai recipe that is often served in cafes, made with fresh veggies, chicken, noodles, and spicy flavors in the homeamde sauce! This recipe feeds a lot, and is delicious for any potluck or gathering. Top with crunchy peanuts and cilantro!
Our Pad Thai Noodle Salad is the best “anytime” salad! This homemade recipe reminds us of a cafe that serves light meals and drinks–a buffet filled with an abundant of salads. This Pad Thai salad recipe serves a crowd, so it’s great for potlucks and holidays. It’s also great left-over and keeps in the fridge up to 5 days! So good!
Pad Thai Cafe (Salad)
Pad Thai is a noodle stir fry with a sweet-savoury-sour sauce scattered with crushed peanuts. We top it with fresh herbs, too. It’s made with thin, flat rice noodles, bean sprouts, garlic chives, scrambled egg, and whatever protein you desire – the most popular being chicken or shrimp (or prawns).
Read more: Pad Thai Cafe (Salad)
Why I love this recipe
- This recipe seems to be a party favorite – everyone loves Pad Thai!
- You can make it ahead, it keeps well in the fridge.
- Serve it cold or warm – DELISH!
- The leftovers are amazing (in eggs, wraps, served cold or hot).
Gather these ingredients:
- Dry rice noodles: or soba noodles, pad Thai-style rice noodles, brown rice noodles, or linguine
- Oil
- Rotisserie chicken (you can also add shrimp)
- Fresh garlic
- Daikon radish
- Shredded carrots
- Napa cabbage
- Cilantro
- Pad Thai sauce: or make homemade dressing (recipe included)
- Peanuts
- Sriracha hot chili sauce
- Lime wedges
How do you make Pad Thai Cafe (Salad)?
- Cook the noodles: It starts off with dry noodles. You can actually use less noodles, and add more volume of veggies. Here’s the beauty of the noodles–you can even use whatever pasta is in your pantry! Or use soba noodles, pad Thai-style rice noodles, brown rice noodles, or linguine.
- Slice the veggies: Add veggies like Napa cabbage, radish, carrots, cilantro.
- Mix in the protein: Add chicken, sauce, cilantro (or basil). You can also add beef, shrimp, or pork.
- Sauce: You can use store-bought Thai dressing, or you can make homemade (recipe included).
- Toppings: Pad Thai sauce, peanuts, Sriracha hot chili sauce, and lime!
Make your own thai peanut sauce ingredients:
- Fresh ginger and garlic
- Peanut butter (or almond butter)
- Citrus: fresh oranges and lime
- Soy sauce
- Honey
- Toasted Sesame Oil
- Salt
- Sriracha sauce
Add more veggies!
- cucumber
- red cabbage
- bell peppers (red, green, yellow, orange) large or you can use sliced mini bell peppers
- jicama
- use any veggie that will stay crunchy and doesn’t get soggy
Tips and substitutions:
- Take a peek in your pantry and see what kind of noodles you have! This recipe is great with any kind of noodles, but best with dry rice or soba noodles.
- Serve hot or served cold (the perfect summer meal).
- Optional to make your own homemade sauce, or you can buy storebought Peanut Sauce (dressing).
- Make it with shrimp and chicken–you can combine 2 proteins. You can also add beef, pork, or tofu (to make it vegetarian).
- A great made-ahead salad, and keeps well for 3-4 days in the fridge -perfect for midweek meals and lunches, or potlucks and gatherings.
- Peanut allergy? Substitute peanuts for toasted, slivered almonds!
How do you serve a Pad Thai Cafe Salad?
- Chilled and served as a salad, this recipe isn’t going to leave you hungry; it’s packed with delicious ingredients with a homemade pad thai sauce!
- Optional to buy store-bought dressing if you need to (but not as good).
- Garnish with cilantro and peanuts (optional); refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving. Serve with fresh lime.
- We also love this recipe for a midweek meal, and just know it gets better and better as it sits (the flavors), and it gets devoured quickly, because everyone loves a good Pad Thai Salad! Or, you may want to try this Chicken Pad Thai Noodle Bowl recipe!
- Serve as a side with these Thai Burgers or Thai Sloppy Joes.
More noodle salads you may want to try:
- Thai Carrot & Cucumber Salad
- Thai Chicken Fettucini Salad
- Noodle Seafood Dish
- Cucumber & Cellophane Noodle Salad
Get the Recipe:
Pad Thai (Cafe) Salad
We love a Pad Thai Cafe Salad – a pad thai recipe made with fresh veggies, chicken, noodles, and spicy flavors in the homeamde sauce!
Ingredients
- 2 pounds dry rice noodles, about 1/4″ wide
- 2 Tbsp. oil
- 2-3 cups rotisserie chicken, pulled and chopped
- 3-4 cloves garlic, finely minced
- 2 cups daikon radish, finely chopped
- 1 cup shredded carrots
- 1 cup Napa cabbage, finely chopped
- 1 ½ cups cilantro, chopped
- 16 ounce jar prepared Pad Thai sauce, OR HOMEMADE RECIPE BELOW
- 1 cup peanuts, chopped
- Sriracha hot chili sauce, optional
- Lime wedges
Homemade Peanut Dressing:
- 5 slices fresh ginger
- 3 cloves garlic, pressed
- ½ cup peanut butter, or almond butter
- ½ cup fresh squeezed orange juice
- ⅓ cup fresh squeezed lime juice
- ¼ cup light soy sauce, we use Coconut Amino Acids
- ⅓ cup honey, agave or maple syrup
- ¼ cup toasted sesame oil
- 1 tsp Kosher salt
- 1-2 tsp sriracha sauce, or more, according to spice level
Instructions
- In a large bowl, submerge the dry rice noodles in hot tap water. Let soak for 8-10 minutes; drain and set aside.
- In a large saute pan over medium high heat, add the garlic to the pan, and fry until the garlic becomes fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add in the chopped chicken; cook for 2 minutes. Add the noodles, radish, carrots, and Napa cabbage. Stir together and fry for 1 more minute.
- THE DRESSING/SAUCE: Mix together the peanut dressing ingredients for a homemade dressing, or at this point, use storebought dressing/sauce.
- Add the sauce to the noodle mixture. Add sriracha sauce if you want more spice. Turn the heat back up to medium-high. Stir to combine. Add in the peanuts and cilantro; toss to combine. Place the salad in a large bowl and refrigerate.
- Garnish with cilantro and peanuts (optional); refrigerate for at least 2 hours; serve with fresh lime.
Notes
Repost from May 2016
Calories: 580kcal, Carbohydrates: 83g, Protein: 21g, Fat: 19g, Saturated Fat: 4g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 5g, Monounsaturated Fat: 7g, Trans Fat: 0.01g, Cholesterol: 38mg, Sodium: 3746mg, Potassium: 402mg, Fiber: 4g, Sugar: 15g, Vitamin A: 1964IU, Vitamin C: 14mg, Calcium: 70mg, Iron: 2mg
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Hello and welcome to my home and table!
I’m Sandy—lover of food, family, cooking, THE BIG BOARD, travel, and bringing people together. Through great recipes and connection around the table, we become better, stronger, and more courageous people. Feasting on Life is real, and every time we do it, we grow a little more. Read more...
I only used 16oz noodles. The rice noodles definitely need more than 10 minutes to soften or you’ll end up wilting the Napa cabbage.
What brand pad Thai sauce do you use?
I’ve used different brands!
This is my kind of salad, yum!
I just made this and it’s delicious. One thing — I think 2 pounds of noodles it too much. Did you mean ½-1 lb?
It is a large recipe. I’ll add that option in to the recipe :)
We alway order Pad Thai when we eat out if we can, love it!!!
This salad look wonderful Sandy! Miss you!!
Yum! Hope all is going well for you…sounds like a busy, but fun season! My hubby was looking at job advertisements and found one in Bend….he said “want to move to Bend?” we’ve always joked that if “God called us somewhere, he could call us to Bend”..lol. I laughed and said “sure” but really, I don’t think I could leave my oldest or family…at least not yet…crazy thought though…I think I could do it, if it was just a bit closer.
I was just looking for a pad Thai salad inside your comment. my heart stopped. I was born and raised in Bend and I miss it so much.