This ramen noodle salad recipe is the perfect combination of textures, flavors, and wow! And it’s ready in 30 minutes!
Want to Save This Recipe?
Enter your email & we'll send it to your inbox. Plus you’ll get great new recipes from us every week.
The trick to making a noodle salad that everyone actually wants to eat?
Balance the sweet and spicy—and mix up the textures.
As a long-time vegan and parent who’s always looking for easy, flavorful meals that aren’t boring, this Asian ramen noodle salad is one of my favorites. It’s loaded with a colorful mix of fruits and vegetables, tossed with tender noodles, and finished with a bold, spicy red curry dressing that brings the whole thing together.
The magic is in the contrast: sweet pineapple, crunchy peppers and cashews, soft noodles, and a little heat from the sauce. It’s light but satisfying, perfect for warm days, meal prep, or packing up for potlucks and picnics.
Jump to:
Why You’ll Love this Ramen Cabbage Salad:
- Flavor – Between the red curry dressing and the variety of vegetables and the addition of fruit, you’re whole being with was to drink up every last drop
- Textures – We used a lot of different textures in this dish to add an element that really heightens the experience
- Fast – All of this is ready in under 30 mins once you’re vegetables are ready to go!
Ingredients for vegan ramen salad:
Gather your ingredients!
Noodles
We’re using ramen noodles for this recipe. They cook quickly, meaning less time in the kitchen cooking for you.
Substitute: Angel hair pasta is also perfect for this or if you can have gluten, try a gluten free noodle like rice noodles or a gluten free angel hair.
Vegetables
We’re adding edamame, corn, red bell peppers, broccoli, and red cabbage to the dish. These are a balance of crunchy, softness, sweet and savory to bring so many components of the dish together.
Substitute: Feel free to explore with difference vegetables that you may have on hand.
Pineapple
To balance out some of the flavors, we’re also adding in some freshly cubed pineapple. Not only does it add some acidity, but also sweetness that goes great with the red curry dressing.
Substitute: Mango or peaches would work great here as well.
Leafy
For a leafy component we’re adding arugula which ups the spice a little with it’s peppery aroma.
Substitute: You can also use baby spinach or any of your favor leafy green. Alternatively, you can omit all leafy greens and just have the noodles with the vegetables and sauce.
Red Curry Dressing
The dressing how coconut milk, garlic, soy sauce, tahini, red curry paste, lime juice, maple syrup, sriracha, and fresh ginger inside.
Substitute: Non-dairy yogurt would be a great alternative for the coconut milk. The soy sauce can be swapped with coconut aminos, tamari or a no soy soy sauce.
For the tahini – you can swap with sunbutter or peanut butter, noting the flavor difference.
Red curry paste and the sriracha are too spicy for some people, you can start in much smaller amounts and then increase as desired.
Other Vegan Salads to Try!
Did you make and love this recipe?
Click the 5 stars in the recipe card above or below in the comment section! This is a great way to support us so we can continue to bring great recipes!
🥳 Get the Full Recipe
Easy Asian Ramen Noodle Salad
Ingredients
Red Curry Dressing
- 15 ounces canned full fat coconut milk
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 lime, zested and juiced (2 tbsps juice)
- 3 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons tahini
- 2 tablespoons red curry paste
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon sriracha
- ½ inch fresh ginger, grated
Salad
- 2 packages ramen noodles
- 1 small head of broccoli, cut into bite sized stems and florets
- 1 cup edamame
- 2 cups purple cabbage, finely shredded
- 1 cup fresh pineapple, diced
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- 1 cup baby arugula
- 1 cup roasted cashews
- ⅔ cup fresh corn, grilled if time*
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. While waiting to boil proceed with other steps.
- For the dressing: To a blender (or a large container with an immersion blender), add canned coconut milk, 2 cloves garlic, zest and juice of 1 lime, 3 tablespoon soy sauce, 2 tablespoon each tahini and red curry paste, 1 tablespoon each maple syrup and sriracha, and ½ in fresh grated ginger. One smooth, set aside.
- Once water in boiling, add your 2 ramen noodle packages. Cook for 3-4 minutes, then remove the noodles to a bowl and immediately run under cold water to stop the cooking process.
- In the same pot of water, add your broccoli stems and cook for 1 minute. Then add florets and 1 cup edamame and cook for 5-6 minutes. Drain and run under cold water so it stops the cooking process.
- Assembling the salad: Once everything is cooked, into a large bowl, add your 2 cups purple cabbage, 1 cup pineapple, 1 red bell pepper, 1 cup baby arugula, 1 cup roasted cashews, and ⅔ cup fresh corn along with the cooked noodles, broccoli and edamame. Toss together well. Then add your dressing and serve.
Notes
**Nutritional values are just estimates. Please utilize your own brands for accuracy.Video
Nutrition
Frequently Asked Questions
First, you’ll want to swap the ramen with a gluten free noodle option. The soy sauce and edamame with a no soy soy sauce and white beans or kidney beans. Coconut milk for a safe non-dairy yogurt, cashews for sunflower seeds, and tahini for sunbutter.
This salad will last for 5 days in the fridge as long as you don’t add the dressing and the arugula. When you’re ready to eat, add those in then.
We don’t recommend freezing this salad.
We made this. I used blanched kale in place of arugula. I may have used substantially more veggies, and I burned most of the corn, and probably didn’t add nearly enough pineapple. I think both of these ingredients add an important flavor profile, so don’t skimp. We also added pan fried tofu, and I think it’s necessary for balance if you eat the dressing like a light addition rather than like typical curry sauce. I like the novelty and appreciate the nutrient profile.
Hi! Sounds like you made a new dish entirely!
Easy, filling salad. Full of fresh flavors and yummy goodness. I love how easy it is to change the recipe if you have an allergy.
Agree!
Great textures and flavors. I went half on the Tahini n curry b/c I think they pack a punch and adjusted once I had it mixed. I did add cilantro n swapped the sirachi for red pepper flakes. makes a ton of sauce. I did not put it all in will serve the extra on the side. love the veggie and spice combos. Will Def make again….
Great idea with the adding as you go!
We had this for dinner and it was sooooo yummy! The flavors were reminiscent of my favorite vegan poke bowl so we topped it with some crunchy fried onions.
Love that!
Made this for dinner last night… It was so DELICIOUS! Equally good for lunch the following day! And that Dressing… Oh my goodness, I want to put it on everything!!
Agree!
Made this with mango instead of pineapple and it was sooooo good, like addicting. The dressing is insane (in a good way lol). I did omit the sriracha though for the spice sensitive in my household but it still had a good spice to it.
Love the mango idea!
I just whipped this up with stuff I already had – noodles, peas, red pepaper lettuc, red cabbage, pineapple and peanuts. I didn’t use tahini in the sauce amd eyeballed the measurements and it is extremely tasty!! So fast to put together. And leftovers for tomorrow 🙂
Love you that found it easy!
So amazing and grilling the corn is lovely and makes a difference. Did not have edamame so used fresh peas from the farmers market in Rhode Island. I could not stop eating it. I love this site and grateful for the compassion about keeping it vegan and acknowledging that it’s a process for a while. I’m working on it. Thank You!
You got this! Glad you enjoyed this one
Looks delicious and I will definitely add it to this week’s menu!
But 10 min prep time?!? No way. It takes longer than that to gather all these ingredients from fridge and pantry. And fresh pineapple? I’m gonna need more than this time just to deal with that!
Thanks for all the great work you do!
Hi Vicki! Thanks for your comment. I hope you love this salad. Prep time is written for mise en place which is a cooking term that means everything should be out and ready before prep time starts. Prep time refers to “bring your pot of water to a boil” for example and not chopping or gathering ingredients in this case. This helps to make it equal since prep time can very so greatly for people who may take 10 minutes to chop one pepper, but someone else may only take 1 minute. Hope this helps.
Thanks for your reply. I use mise en place whenever I’m cooking, but I think of “prep” time as everything it takes to get it all set up and ready to cook.
I’ll keep your version in mind, though, when using your recipes.