Name: Crunchy Cashew Salad
Prep time: 20 min
Total time: 20 min
Ingredients: 2 tbsp olive oil; 3 tbsp vinegar; 3 tbsp honey; 2 tbsp Mayo; 1/2 tsp salt; 1 tsp black pepper powder; 2 cups red cabbage (shredded); 1 cup carrot (shredded); 1 1/2 cup chopped iceberg (or any salad leaves available); 1 cup capsicum (sliced); 1 cup roasted cashew nuts; 1/2 cup crunchy spicy potato chips (optional)

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One of the best salad recipes is the one that you will ACTUALLY eat. This crunchy Cashew Salad works wonders for me in that criteria. It has all my favorite veggies, my favorite Nut and a sweet salad dressing with Mayo in it, I mean you can’t hate on this salad even if you wanted to.

I kid you not, twice I’ve had this bowl of colorful goodness and potato wedges for dinner and it was glorious! Oh and did I tell you? this pairs perfectly with the Malai Boti Pulao I’ve made on the blog for you guys. Or you could also put this up on a brunch table. Just FYI stuff

All the ingredients for cashew salad in various bowls.

Did you look at those glorious colors? Rainbow in a bowl wouldn’t be an exaggeration right?

To make this salad, all you need is:

A simple grater or food ninja to do the vegetable shredding for you (or you know….your mom?)
Basic, VERY basic ingredients for the salad dressing
The will to eat a salad ( I run low on that more often than you know..but not for this one)

LET’S MAKE THE HONEY SALAD DRESSING FIRST

All you need to make this hassle free salad dressing, are the ingredients and a jar. Yup! yup! Just add all the ingredients; honey, pepper, salt, vinegar, olive oil and mayo in the jar and shake it till you make it! Or you know go old school and get a bowl and whisk the dressing up! Whatever works!

a yellow colored honey salad dressing in a white bowl with a spoon and kitchen towel underneath it.

ASSEMBLE THE CRUNCHY CASHEW SALAD

Here’s a bird view of all that you’ll need. There’s some carrots, red cabbages, cashew nuts, capsicum, iceberg lettuce, the salad dressing andddd also a small bowl of potato chips. What??? These potato chips are called Slims back home in Pakistan. Use any chips you want, and if you are eating this for health reasons…(gasp!!) Just skip the Chips and you are good to go!

You are probably not going to neatly place all your shredded veggies in bowls like these cz duh why would you do that to yourself. (I had to take a picture so am ya I had to do the dishes too…feel me!) On non-blogging days, aka normal days, I just dump all my salad ingredients as I grate them in my big bowl. Mix everythinggggg together and drizzle some good amount of dressing on top.

And then I kick back with this bowl and fork in my hand, the TV remote in the other and watch F.R.I.E.N.D.S all over again. Life’s sorted.

Honey salad dressing pouring into a bowl of Cashews and vegetable salad

SUBSTITUTES AND REMIXES

Mayo Alternative

So if you don’t want to add Mayo, you can always substitute it with Greek Yogurt. The mayo in essence only adds a creamy texture to the dressing so Greek yogurt will have you covered there. You can also completely skip this ingredient if you want.

Make this a Meal

Add pieces of grilled chicken or shrimp to it and you are looking at a full fledged dinner plate. ( I mean I’d still probably add some potato wedges on the side but you know it’s nice to think we can live without carbs). Do a simple black pepper, salt, garlic and soy sauce marination for your grilled chicken or shrimp and it will complement your salad very well.

Portion Control

If you are trying to eat healthier all by yourself and wanna make this salad just for you, just cut down the quantities of all the ingredients by half and you will have a nice big bowl of serving ready to be eaten as dinner.

Potatoes not potating

The potato chips are literally just for the nice crunch in between, and also the indulgence (teh heh). You could easily substitute it with fried chowmein or pita chips or Croutons or some yum papars! Or you know…skip it completely if that’s something your not into.