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Made this tonight and my husband who doesn’t think a salad is a meal ate the whole bowl and said he ate all of the kale and loved the salad. It is a winner!
Sarah
This is a brand new recipe that’s part of our Spring 2023 SOS Series – in other words, EASY recipes! View our full collection of SOS recipes here.
In This Post: Everything You Need For Miso Crunch Salad
Lindsay’s Notes
Cabbage, kale, shrimp, cilantro, peanuts, and creamy sweet miso dressing… I could eat this every day for lunch and be happy with my life. (And by could, I mean I currently am.)
We were actually planning to publish this later in the SOS Series, but I could not wait to get this into your hands because I’m so obsessed with it. So here she is, making an early entrance! This salad is so perfect for these early days of spring / summer when it’s starting to warm up and the grass is turning green again and the body is just feeling aggressively ready for salads.
So many of these salad ingredients are easy to buy pre-made / pre-ready to eat (I get a lot of them at Trader Joe’s):
- pre-shredded cabbage
- pre-chopped kale
- cooked shrimp
- chili onion peanuts
And this miso dressing can be blitzed up in about two minutes. It is creamy, sweet, springy, delicate, and just very life-giving. Just a little bit of garlic, but not overpowering, and the punch from the lime is the most delicious little jolt of wake-me-up energy that you want in a salad.
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Miso Crunch Salad
- Total Time: 10 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
Description
This Miso Crunch Salad is made for springtime! Major crunch for veggies like cabbage and kale, a tiny bite of heat from chili-flavored peanuts, chilled shrimp, and the perfect sweet miso dressing.
Ingredients
Miso Dressing:
- 1/3 cup avocado oil
- 1/3 cup lime juice (4-6 limes)
- 1/4 cup white miso
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Miso Crunch Salad:
- 1 lb. cooked shrimp, cut into bite-sized pieces
- 5 cups shredded Tuscan kale
- 5 cups shredded green cabbage
- 1 cup chili-flavored peanuts (or something similar)
- 2 avocados
- 1/2 cup sliced green onions
- 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
Instructions
- Shake all dressing ingredients in a jar, or blend together in a small food processor (affiliate link) until smooth. If it’s on the thicker side, add a bit of water until it pours smoothly off the end of a spoon.
- Toss all salad ingredients with dressing! You can do this as a large batch (serves 4-6) or prep the elements and store them separately to make the salads one at a time for individual lunches and dinners throughout the week, which is what I usually do! Crunchy, sweet, delicate, and fresh!
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Category: Salad
- Method: Chop
- Cuisine: Asian-Inspired
Keywords: miso salad, shrimp salad, salad recipe
What Is Miso?
Miso is a fermented soybean paste that is used in Japanese cooking.
You can buy multiple varieties of miso – yellow, red, and white are the three I’m most familiar with. The one I’m using here and the one I’d recommend is white miso (affiliate link), which is very mild and almost sweet. It has a more delicate and nuanced flavor, which is so perfect in this salad.
I usually find it in the produce section of the grocery store, near the tofu!
What To Use Instead Of Miso?
Tahini could be a good substitute! It’s similarly creamy, but it’s less salty, so if you do use tahini (in equal proportions to the miso), I would recommend seasoning the dressing with extra salt or even a shot of soy sauce.
Other Protein Options?
Rotisserie chicken is great in this salad! I’ve done it many times.
Can It Be Vegan / Vegetarian?
Edamame is a great veg protein that I love throwing into this salad!
Any Other Veggies?
I have enjoyed spinach (in place of the kale), and finely chopped broccoli, cucumber, and bell pepper.
Making This Nut-Free?
You could use sunflower seeds (that’s what the Churchill Street miso crunch salad uses!) or wonton strips instead of the nuts!
How To Keep Leftovers?
The salad is best within the first 15-30 minutes after tossing it together! The greens and cabbage will start to lose some of their crunch after they sit in the dressing for a while. So if you’re serving it to a group, just toss it up, serve it fresh, and have everybody eat as much as possible. 🙂
On the other hand, if you’re eating this one serving at a time, it works really well to prep everything (dressing, shrimp, peanuts, cilantro, and greens) and have those elements in the fridge so you can throw this together as individual lunch portions throughout the week.
Make It Even Easier?
I can confirm that this is delicious with just a store-bought Asian-style dressing that is pumped up with some extra salt, extra sugar, and maybe even a spoonful of white miso. Kind of a hybrid homemade miso dressing, ya know? I made it the hybrid way for an Easter get-together and everyone raved about it!
Source Notes
This salad is a cousin to the avocado shrimp salad from years ago! The 2023 version – the one you see here – is more like a slaw, which I am totally loving! And the dressing skips the ginger.
I saw a Miso Crunch Salad on the menu at a restaurant near us called Churchill Street, and I wanted to replicate it, which is where this idea came from!
More Springy Salads To Make
- Lemongrass Vermicelli Salad (a salad with noodles? yes, please!)
- Corn, Avocado, and Quinoa Salad with Marinated Tomatoes (for real, do not sleep on the marinated tomatoes)
- Napa Chicken Salad with Sesame Dressing (this dressing is a dream!)
- Cashew Crunch Salad with Sesame Dressing (when you need more salad crunch in your life)
- Super Quick Avocado Shrimp Salad (ultra fast to prep)
Made this last night for dinner and it was great! I cut the sugar in the dressing in half, added cucumbers and edamame, and omitted the shrimp – served it alongside salmon and coconut rice. Everyone loved it.
Made tbis, it was fantastic. Did a few things different out of necessity, some for fun–used maple syrup instead of sugar, added lime zest. I didn’t have a lot of those veggies–I used nappa cabbage, edamame, maple soy glazed crispy tofu, grape tomatoes, cucumber. So good.
delicious dressing! I made this for dinner this week and used Trader Joe’s sriracha tofu as a replacement for the shrimp. I’ll definitely be making this again for summer!
Wonderful meal; used both shrimp (for me) and chicken for my family. Kale and cabbage seemed a bit too “crunchy” for a member of my family, so I used kale, chopped romaine, cucumbers, and the remaining listed ingredients. Couldn’t find the chili peanuts, so I used chili pistachios instead. Overall, it’s the dressing that really makes this salad. Amazing flavors!!
This might be my favorite salad ever! Rather than sugar, I used Allulose in the dressing (i need to watch blood sugar) and it was still delicious. I bought an Asian salad kit at Walmart for the salad part just because I was feeling lazy. So good!!
I have made this recipe several times. It is excellent. 5 Stars!
This was so good. I had leftover shrimp cocktail from a gathering which was put to good use in this salad. I added chopped cucumbers and used the Trader Joe’s chili lime cashews. Dressing was delish!
I made this with rotisserie chicken and it was delicious! Very flavorful!
What are chili-flavored Peanuts, and where do you get them?
You can get them at Target!
Pretty good but too sweet for my liking, I’d suggest starting with a tbsp of sugar and adding more from there
Delicious! How long would you estimate the dressing would be good if stored separately in the fridge?
2 weeks!
This salad is amazing! 5+ star rating!
Anyone I make it for loves it. Angie can eat it for days. When you cut up the shrimp in bite-size pieces sautéd in garlic butter, it tastes like lobster throughout the salad.
Love, love, love this salad!! Just made it yet again for a group of girl friends & they loved it too (so it’s not just my family)!! Lindsay, your dressings & sauces are amazing & are the key to your deliciousness!! We never buy store bought dressings anymore. It’s WAY cheaper & oh so much more tasty to make a Pinch of Yum one!
Thank you!!
Wow wow wow! What a beautiful salad! I’ve made it multiple times now and everyone always asks for the recipe. So easy and healthy!
Tips: We have been thinking with maple syrup instead of sugar. And we used a discontinued salad topper vs peanuts since I couldn’t find the flavored ones. And used a crunchy chickpea and seed mix. It’s all delicious.
This also has become a camping staple! Prechop the lettuce and premix the dressing. Everyone thought it was so gourmet eating like that in nature and it comes together quickly
Love your stuff!! I know this sounds silly, but I don’t like the taste of plain shrimp. How would you season these to compliment the salad? Chimichurri shrimp? An Asian inspired marinade?
Asian-inspired marinade sounds great! Or you could even sub something else you like more. 🙂 Like chicken or salmon!
What would be a good substitute for avocado oil? Is EVOO too strong?
Vegetable oil would be a good sub as it’s more neutral!
It was the dressing I was searching for when I decided to make a salad with collards (de-veined, rolled up & thinly sliced). But like others, I balked at the white sugar; 1/4c agave worked perfectly. Thank you so much!
This is my favorite salad of yours! The dressing is so bright and refreshing and makes the salad. We usually make it with a rotisserie chicken chopped into it and sometimes sub the kale for romaine lettuce.
Good recipe, I added tahini to it , Miso Crunch Salad with tahini was a delightful surprise! The combination of crunchy vegetables with the creamy tahini dressing infused with miso added a burst of flavor. It was a refreshing and satisfying dish that I’ll definitely be making again. Highly recommend trying it out
This recipe was great. I added a couple tablespoons of apple cider vinegar to the dressing. It was perfect!
I don’t usually look at nutrition info but skimmed over it as I was making my way down to the comments and the cholesterol amount caught my eye…49% for one serving? is that right?
This is so delicious :).
I could literally eat this salad everyday. Delicious!
This recipe is single-handedly responsible for at least half, if not 75 percent, of the salads in my life. I find myself actually looking forward to eating it, which is unheard of for me with salad. I’ve never eaten so much cabbage or kale as I have since discovering this recipe.
Amazing. Love that!
This is my new favorite salad! My Trader Joe’s was out of white miso paste for the dressing so I substituted tahini and followed the note to add soy sauce + salt to taste. Came out absolutely delicious!