Thai Salad with Jalapeno and Mint is a salad bursting with crunchy bits, freshness and loads of flavour.
Thai Salad with Jalapeno and Mint
An irresistibly crunchy Thai salad featuring a tangy Asian dressing will be your new vegetable obsession!
Each bite packs a powerhouse of fresh superfoods and can be made vegetarian using beyond meat crumbles or roasted chickpeas.
The Dressing
We combine the following flavours common in Thai cooking: sour, sweet, salty and spicy to make a delicious dressing. Adding in additional chili flakes or sambel oelek is entirely optional and what we do occasionally for a extra little kick of heat.
The spicy fresh peppers do turn it up the heat a notch, so really know how much your family likes spicy before adding more!
Here’s a list of the ingredients we use to make this salad not including the dressing, so get your shopping list ready!
Main Ingredients
- Lettuce mix – we like to use a spring mix or add a couple variations to the mix
- Mint – ensure it’s fresh, it’s delicious
- Carrots – grating them makes it easy
- Shallots – slice them thin and let everyone add as much or little as they want
- Spicy Peppers – always use fresh and add whatever you can tolerate (we prefer jalapeno sliced thin)
- Cucumbers – the mini ones are good and can be sliced into small coins, or long english cucumbers with skin on
- Peanuts – if your peanuts aren’t roasted, roast them
- Lime juice – use fresh
- Ground pork – cook up until nicely browned for extra flavour
Family Style Spread
We typically eat family style with everyone helping themselves but with this dish I prepare the plates with the ingredients I know my family will eat like the lettuce, mint, cucumbers, carrots and the pork.
The remaining ingredients (shallot, jalapeno, peanuts, dressing) go into bowls on the table family style allowing everyone to pick & choose what else goes in their salad.
At a certain age kids do not need to be served their meals but empowered to make their own choices and try a little bit of everything on the table.
PRO TIPS:
- If you don’t eat pork, use ground chicken, turkey, beef or lamb.
- If you don’t eat meat, use beyond beef crumbles or roasted chickpeas.
- A drizzle of chili oil on top if you have any on hand is a nice touch.
- Feeds four nicely however sometimes we double the recipe when we are hungry as everyone loves it so much.
- Change up this salad by using lettuce cups instead of a salad mix.
Check out some of our most popular salad recipes:
- Watermelon, Herb and Cucumber Salad
- BLT Wedge Salad
- Greek Pasta Salad
- Thai Inspired Quinoa Salad
- Chickpea and Artichoke Salad
- Bok Choy Salad
If you made this recipe tag Wanda Baker on Instagram and hashtag it #bakersbeans or #wandabaker
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 - 1.5 lb ground pork
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 tbsp fish sauce
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 1 tbsp tsp soy sauce
Dressing
- 2 limes juiced
- 2 tbsp fish sauce
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- salt & pepper
Assemble Salad
- 8 cups mixed lettuce
- 1 cup fresh mint leaves chopped
- 2 carrots grated
- 1 cup cucumber grated or sliced thinly into matchsticks
- 2 shallots thinly sliced
- 1 jalapeno or serrano chili sliced thin (seeds removed if you don't like the heat)
- 1/2 cup roasted salted peanuts
Instructions
- Heat 1 tbsp oil in large saucepan over medium-high heat.
- Add pork and break it up into smaller crumbles. Cook until you get a good brown on the pork.
- Mix together 1/4 cup water, 1 tbsp fish sauce, 1 tsp sugar, 1 tsp sesame oil, 1 tbsp soy sauce and pour into pan with pork. Cook until almost all liquid is gone and flavours combined. Set aside to cool a bit.
Dressing
- In a cup whisk together lime juice, 2 tbsp fish sauce, 1 tsp sugar, 1 tbsp olive oil, 1 tsp soy sauce, 1 tsp sesame oil. Add a pinch of salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.
Assemble Salad
- On four plates divide salad & sprinkle with mint. Top each with carrots, cucumbers and the slightly cooled pork mixture.
- In separate bowls add your shallots, pepper, and peanuts. Place on the table with the dressing and let everyone add the remaining ingredients to their salads.
Oooh, I never would have put jalapenoes in a Thai salad, but this sounds delicious. So full of flavour.
They add a nice spicy kick!
This is everything a gourmet salad should be, and then some! Easily, a new favorite recipe in our house; the whole family loved it!
We make it every couple of weeks it’s so good!
Oooh I have a whole mint bush in my garden this is perfect for this recipe!
Nice, I’d love to have a mint bush!
Now this is my kinda salad! You can tell it’s just bursting with flavour 🙂
Lots of good stuff in there!
I was looking at what to make for my light lunch today and found your recipe. WOW! I made it, and it was beyond my expectations! Thanks.
Thrilled you enjoyed it!
Delicious! I made this with ground chicken. While I don’t usually have fresh mint at this time of year, I happened to have some left from another recipe! So fresh tasting. Thanks!
Glad you liked it!
So flavourful! I love the idea of serving it family style so that everyone can build their own (great idea with kids).
So tasty! I love the Thai flavours and my kids do too!
Loads of flavour in this salad!
Oh we were going to make pork lettuce wraps tomorrow, so I think I’m going to turn your amazing salad into them instead of coming up with something new. Thanks for sharing.
Good plan!
I’m loving everything in this salad, especially the addition of jalapenos!
A little spicy kick that is not for everyone!