Easy Summer Salad with Thai Chili Vinaigrette - Kitchen Fidelity (2024)

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This lively salad is fresh, crisp, and filled with Summer produce at it's peak ripeness. Juicy heirloom tomatoes, sweet peaches, and hydrating cucumbers topped with a aromatic vinaigrette. You're going to love this Summer Salad with Thai Chili Vinaigrette.

This salad is literally summer on a plate. Serve it up for lunch to deliciously cool down on a hot day. Better yet, serve it along side our Habanero Jerk Shrimp.

Why You'll Love this Summer Salad

Ready in less than 30 minutes: This salad comes together fast. No waiting for flavors to marinate or sit. We're chopping some produce, making a vinaigrette, and ready to eat.

Easily converts to main course: Simply add some protein and this fresh salad becomes more than a starter. We suggest grilled shrimp.

Recipe Ingredients

The bulk of the salad is comprised of large pieces of cucumber, peaches, and heirloom tomatoes topped with a beautiful Thai Sweet Chili Vinaigrette.

For the Thai Chili Vinaigrette

For the Thai Sweet Chili Vinaigrette you just need a few simple ingredients including:

• Thai sweet chili sauce
• limes
• rice wine vinegar
• canola oil
• garlic
• ginger
• cilantro

Lastly, the salad is topped with some chopped almonds to add a nice little crunch.

check the recipe card for amounts and step by step walkthrough.

How to make this Summer Salad with Thai Chili Vinaigrette

Step 1: Start by prepping the produce. Cut the cucumbers in half and then cut into chunks at an angle. For the tomatoes and peaches cut them into wedges. We're looking to create larger pieces like shown below. Place them in a large salad bowl and move on to the vinaigrette.

Step 2: In a small mixing bowl combine the Thai sweet chili sauce, lime zest and juice, rice wine vinegar, canola oil, and minced garlic and ginger. To help emulsify the vinaigrette, whisk as you slowly add in the canola oil.

Chef Tip: Use a microplane. It comes in very handy for zesting limes and mincing the ginger and garlic.

This is what we're looking for consistency wise after everything emulsifies.

Step 3: Pour the vinaigrette into the salad bowl with the peaches, tomatoes, and cucumber, reserving a little of the vinaigrette for later.

Step 4: Add chopped cilantro to the reserved dressing and give a quick mix to coat the cilantro. Now you can add nice spoonfuls of saucy cilantro over the salad for presentation and pops of flavor.

Lastly add some chopped almonds for a nice added crunch.

Here are some kitchen tools that we used to make this salad:

• Chef Knife
• Microplane: very handy for zesting the lime and mincing the ginger and garlic.
• Mixing Bowls: large and small for preparing the vinaigrette and a larger bowl for preparing the salad.
• Cutting Board
• Whisk: This makes emulsifying the vinaigrette simple. Just keep that whisk moving as you slowly pour in the oil.

Tips and Variations

• For a further depth of flavor to the vinaigrette consider replacing the salt with fish sauce.
• A splash of soy sauce instead of salt gives a slightly different flavor profile to the vinaigrette.
• For a spicier kick, reduce the thai sweet chili sauce by half and add in Sriracha as a replacement.
• Make this salad the main course by adding grilled shrimp or chicken.

How to Store this Summer Salad with Thai Chili Vinaigrette

This Summer Salad is best enjoyed immediately. The longer it sits, the more the produce will break down and lose it's crunch. It's also best to add the dressing right before serving. It can be stored for up to a day after serving in the refrigerator.

Substitutions

• I don't like almonds: No problem, cashews make a perfect replacement.
• If you can't find ripe peaches, nectarines make a great replacement.

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Recipe Card

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