Chopped Cashew Chicken Salad with Homemade Creamy Cashew Dressing
by Melanie Gunnell
Oh, you know, nothing
much going on around here except for THE BEST CASHEW CHICKEN SALAD IN
THE UNIVERSE. And if online shouting offends, I’m sorry, but I
have to get my point across somehow.
If fresh, flavorful
salads that are hearty enough to fill you up for dinner are your kind
of thing, you don’t want to pass over this amazingly delicious
chopped cashew chicken salad. After you power through the carpal
tunnel effects of chopping all the fresh ingredients (it’s
really not that bad, you guys, promise + the end result is so
completely worth the repetition), it’s a matter of tossing the
crunchy salad with the simple, blended homemade cashew dressing,
piling it up on plates and calling it good.
Oh, and don’t
forget the extra sprinkle of roasted, salted cashews. They kind of
make everything right in the world, those cashews.
We’ve eaten this
for dinner several times in the last couple of weeks. The dinner
repeats have been for only one purpose: to provide a lunch I can look
forward to.
I hold my family to one
dinner serving each so that I can pull out the deliciously fresh
leftovers the next day (if heaven is smiling down upon me, for a
couple of days) and eat in absolute crunchy cashew salad bliss
alongside my sweetie toddler (who’s most likely smashing
grilled cheese and yogurt all over the place).
Cashew chicken
salad…good cashew chicken salad…is a very
beautiful thing.
If you don't have
cooked chicken (a rotisserie chicken works great here), this simple,
flavorful method
for cooking chicken to shred or chop is a great
alternative. If doing the above (cooking the chicken to use in the
recipe), try rubbing the soy sauce + sesame oil mixture on the
chicken before cooking instead of tossing with the cooked chicken
like called for in the recipe.
Ingredients
Dressing:
1/2 cup roasted, salted cashews
1 tablespoon chopped fresh ginger
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons chopped shallots
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice (from about 1 lime)
2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
2 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon honey
2 tablespoons canola, olive or avocado oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Salad:
3-4 cups cooked, chopped chicken (see note above)
1/2 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce
1/2 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
4 cups shredded Napa cabbage
2-3 cups chopped romaine lettuce
1 cup chopped snow peas
1 cup chopped carrots
2 green onions, white and green parts thinly chopped
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/2 - 1 cup chopped roasted, salted cashews
Directions
For the dressing, pulse the 1/2
cup cashews in a blender or food processor until the texture is like
a paste. Add the rest of the dressing ingredients and process until
well-combined and mostly smooth. Set aside or refrigerate for up to
a couple of days.
Toss the cooked, chopped chicken
with the 1 tablespoon soy sauce and 1 tablespoons sesame oil. In a
large bowl, combine the cabbage, lettuce, snow peas, carrots, green
onions, and cilantro. Add the chicken.
Toss the salad with the dressing
(add a bit at a time; you can serve any extra alongside if you don't
use it all to dress the salad). Sprinkle the cashews on top and
serve. If you are planning to have leftovers, don't toss the salad
with the dressing as a whole. Serve the dressing on the side and
store the dressing and salad leftovers separately in the
refrigerator.
Recipe Source: adapted from a recipe in “Cuisine at Home” April 2015
(altered and increased the dressing amounts, changed a few
ingredients in the salad lineup and used cooked chicken)
Melanie Gunnell is a food-loving, chocolate-obsessed mom who has a desperate need to share
her favorite tried-and-true recipes with the world. In a past life she graduated from Brigham
Young University with a degree in public health, but for the past ten years, stay-at-home
motherhood has been her job along with blogging-from-home for the past five.
She resides in the brilliantly cold tundra of Northern Minnesota with her husband and their brood
of five children: four boys and one tiny, bossy girl. Dark chocolate (particularly the act of
shoving chocolate chips in her mouth whilst hiding in the pantry) is her coping skill of choice for
both the never-ending winters and the never-ending wrestling matches in her front room.