Papaya Salad (Som Tum Thai)

  • Level: Easy
  • Yield: 4 servings
  • Total: 20 min
  • Active: 20 min
Green papayas are readily available at Asian and Latin markets. They are the same long papayas eaten ripe, just picked green and young. If they are tough to find, you can sub in a julienned fruit or vegetable blend, including carrots, apples and cabbage—all work great for this recipe. Thai salted shrimp are little, orange, bay-sized shrimp that have been salted and dried. They add amazing umami and salty flavor to this and any dish.
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Ingredients

Dressing:

1/4 cup (60 ml) fish sauce

1/4 cup (60 ml) fresh lime juice

3 tablespoons (42 g) palm sugar or brown sugar

1 tablespoon Thai salted dried shrimp

1 tablespoon (12 g) msg

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 to 3 fresh Thai chilies, minced

Salad:

8 to 10 cherry tomatoes, quartered, divided

1 cup (85 g) green beans or long beans, cut on the bias into 1 1/2-inch (4-cm) lengths, divided

4 cups (640 g) young green papaya, grated

1 cup (120 g) chopped roasted peanuts, divided

Directions

  1. To make the dressing, place the fish sauce, lime juice, palm sugar, dried shrimp, msg, garlic, chilies, four of the cherry tomatoes and 1/4 cup (21 g) of the beans into a blender and pulse them together for about 5 seconds. The dressing should be slightly chunky, not smooth. Alternatively, use a large mortar and pestle to smash to a chunky consistency. Adjust the number of chilies depending on how spicy you like your food.
  2. To assemble the salad, in a large bowl, toss the papaya, remaining tomatoes, remaining beans and some of the peanuts together with the dressing to taste. Make sure to aggressively mix the ingredients to slightly break up the tomatoes and beans. Garnish the salad with the remaining peanuts.

Let's Get Cooking!

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