Feel like eating a rainbow? This Thai style salad is a refreshing way to enjoy leftover salmon with the creamy sweetness of mango and cool crunch of cabbage. All served with a light fish sauce dressing that has no oil.
This recipe is inspired by Southeast Asian cuisines. The blistering heat in the countries of Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam don't necessarily lend to the growth of delicate lettuce leaves.
Instead, their salads tend to rely on heartier vegetables such as green papayas, green mangoes, and cucumbers.
Common to many of their salads is a fish sauce dressing spiked with garlic, fresh chili, and acid.
Serve this salad on its own as a main course for lunch or as a side dish next to Vietnamese "Fried" Fish, Coconut Curry Mussels, or a Thai Butternut Squash Curry.
For other festive salads, check out this strawberry salmon salad, fig and beet salad, and kale spinach salad.
Ingredients
These are super easy ingredients to find and many of them may already be found in your fridge.
- Red Cabbage - Green or a mix of red and green cabbage works too. The red cabbage though adds a colorful touch of purple to the salad.
- Green Lettuce - I used butter lettuce, but any lettuce of your choice will work.
- Mango - Make sure it's ripe! You should be able to easily make a depression in the skin when you push into it with your finger. If it's not ripe enough, it will taste sour instead of adding sweetness to this salad.
- Red Bell Pepper - Any color of bell pepper works, but the red adds a nice contrast in color.
- Cucumber - Pictured is a Persian cucumber with an edible skin that doesn't need to be peeled. If you use a regular cucumber, peel the skin if it tastes bitter to you.
- Salmon - Pictured is hot smoked salmon but any leftover cooked salmon or cold smoked salmon will be just fine.
Not pictured but still part of the recipe:
- Fresh Herbs - Use your choice of fresh cilantro, parsley, thai basil, and/or mint.
- Fresh herbs are delicate and go bad, so use what you have on hand or buy a bunch of what you could use up for that week's meal plan.
See recipe card below for quantities.
Salad Dressing Ingredients
- Fish Sauce - Yes, it's stinky and salty, but it will get tamed by the other ingredients in the dressing.
- Unseasoned Rice Vinegar - Every salad dressing has an acid component, and rice vinegar is used here. Unseasoned rice vinegar does not have any sugar added to it.
- Sugar - Honey, coconut sugar, agave syrup or any kind of sweetener
- Fresh Garlic
- Jalapeno - or other fresh chili pepper of your choice
Instructions
Combine all the salad dressing ingredients into a bowl and whisk together.
Let the salad dressing hang out to while you prep the rest of the salad. Time will take the sharp edges off the fresh garlic.
Put all the vegetables except the lettuce, salmon, and mango into a bowl big enough to toss the ingredients together.
Add the salad dressing and gently toss the ingredients all together.
Layer the lettuce leaves on the bottom of the serving platter.
Layer the mixed vegetables, mango, and salmon chunks on top. Drizzle over the remaining salad dressing.
What is Smoked Salmon?
Smoked salmon is salmon that has been cured (with salt, sometimes sugar) and then exposed to smoke, giving it flavor, aroma, and longer shelf life. It comes in two main styles: cold-smoked and hot-smoked—each with distinct texture, taste, and uses.
Cold-Smoked Salmon
- Temperature: Smoked at low temps (usually 70–90°F / 21–32°C), never cooked through.
- Texture: Silky, smooth, and raw-like (similar to sashimi).
- Flavor: Delicate, subtly smoky, buttery.
- Appearance: Thinly sliced, translucent, deep pink to reddish-orange.
- Shelf Life: Shorter (1–2 weeks refrigerated; best eaten quickly).
- Uses: Bagels with cream cheese, canapés, sushi, charcuterie boards.
Hot-Smoked Salmon
- Temperature: Smoked at higher temps (120–180°F / 49–82°C), fully cooked.
- Texture: Flaky, firm, drier than cold-smoked.
- Flavor: More pronounced smoke, savory, sometimes seasoned or glazed.
- Appearance: Opaque, paler pink/orange, often chunked rather than sliced.
- Shelf Life: Longer (up to 2 weeks refrigerated; can be vacuum-packed/frozen).
- Uses: Salads, pasta, chowders, dips, or eaten as-is.
Recipe
Thai Mango Salmon Salad
Ingredients
- ½ head butter lettuce or salad greens of your choice
- ¼ head red cabbage thin sliced ¼" thick
- ½ ea red bell pepper sliced ¼" thick
- 1 ea Persian cucumber, sliced or about ½ c sliced cucumber of your choice
- ¼ c cilantro leaves roughly torn
- ¼ c mint leaves
- 8 oz cooked salmon broken into 1-2" chunks
- 1 ea mango cut into 1-2" chunks
Salad Dressing
- ¼ c fish sauce
- ¼ c water
- 2 Tb unseasoned rice vinegar
- 1 Tb sugar
- 2 teaspoon minced jalapeno seeds and white ribs removed, for less spiciness
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
Instructions
- Whisk together the salad dressing ingredients until the sugar is dissolved and set aside. I like to shake everything together in a small jar.
- Lay the butter lettuce leaves on a serving platter.
- Toss the red cabbage, cucumber, red bell pepper, cilantro and mint with half of the salad dressing. Spread over the lettuce leaves.
- Arrange the mango and salmon chunks on top of the vegetables on the platter.
- Drizzle over the remaining salad dressing on top of the salad. Serve immediately.
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