A nice fresh salad of carrot and cabbage with an Asian style dressing. A Vietnamese carrot salad, in other words.

Vietnamese carrot salad

A deliciously fresh Vietnamese carrot salad that you can customize to your liking. Ideal to serve the salad as a side dish with dinner or as a light lunch.

To be honest, these days I find it quite complicated to name a dish. I mean; with all the focus on “cultural appropration,” it’s not so easy to call something Vietnamese anymore. By the way, I never pretend that anything is authentic. So in this case, Vietnamese carrot salad, is a carrot salad where I recognize the flavors from Vietnam.

Call it whatever else you want. It is inspired by Vietnamese cuisine. The salad is very simple to make and it is the seasonings that make it a special dish. In this case, fish sauce, ginger, lime and mint.

Light

The salad is very light and has only about 200 calories. Convenient if you are watching the calories but very light if you want to enjoy this as lunch. In that case, it is convenient to add some poached chicken, for example. Or serve it as a delicious side dish with a Vietnamese-inspired meal. For example this would be very tasty with spring rolls.

The salad is quick to assemble, although it is nice to let the Vietnamese carrot salad stand for a while to allow the flavors to sink in. You can compare it to coleslaw, in which case you add very different flavors than the standard mayonnaise you use with coleslaw.

I really like both kinds. I have a great fondness for cabbage anyway. I really like all varieties. I know that not everyone can stand it equally well and especially raw it can still be tough on the stomach. But definitely give this Vietnamese carrot salad a try!

Before you put the dressing on top, check that it is not too salty or lacking in salt. Fish sauce is very salty by itself, so two teaspoons is usually enough in the dressing, but if you want more, you can always do that. Tasting is important!

What goes into the Vietnamese carrot salad?

The ingredients for this carrot salad are simple and can be adjusted too:

lime
fish sauce – not everyone is a big fan of fish sauce as the flavor (and smell!) can be quite strong. You can leave it out although I would urge you to try it as it does give this dressing an authentic flavor
sweet chili sauce – if you’re watching your sugar intake, you probably know that sweet chili sauce has quite a bit of sugar in it. There are varieties without sugar so keep an eye out for those if you find that important. I think the quantity is ok to use in this salad. But that’s my personal opinion.
ginger. Fresh so you can grate it. Can be substitutes with ground ginger if you want
carrots – I did not measure the weight of the carrots but it’s three large carrots
white cabbage
peanuts (optional) – peanuts can be left out or changed for other nuts of your liking

Do you like Vietnamese? Then try this delicious spicy pho!

5 from 3 votes

Vietnamese carrot salad

Prep time 10

Cooking time 10

Total time 20

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2 people

Ingredients

▢ 2 limes 1 juiced and 1 cut into cheeks to serve
▢ 3 tbsp fish sauce
▢ 3 tbsp sweet chili sauce
▢ 2 cm root ginger finely grated
▢ 3 large carrot finely shredded
▢ 1/4 white cabbage very finely shredded
▢ 2 tbsp peanuts a handful, toasted and chopped
▢ mint a large bunch chopped

Instructions

Mix the lime juice, fish sauce, chilli sauce and ginger. Add the carrot, cabbage and mint and toss. Sprinkle with peanuts. Serve as a side dish
If desired, serve with additional Thai basil and a chopped spring onion

Simone

Nutrition Information per portion:

Disclaimer:

The nutritional values above are calculated per portion. The details are based on standard nutritional tables and do not constitute a professional nutritional advice.

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