Vegan Thai Green Papaya Salad Recipe with step by step photos. This salad is made using raw green papaya, long yard beans, tomatoes and the dressing incorporated in this salad is to die for.
It is sweet, salty, tangy and pungent that makes up this whole salad.
Som Tam as it is commonly known in Thailand and parts of Laos also happens to be a very popular street food.
Every street corner has stalls with prepped up ingredients waiting for the salad to be pounded and served.
As I love the combo of spicy, tangy and sweet in food, this salad is something that I love immensely.
I rarely get green papaya here but whenever someone from my native brings it, I make this salad.
The Thais make it in a conical wide mouthed wooden mortar and pestle.
Since I do not have that beauty in my kitchen, I follow this process which I explain below to get the same results and this works out well for me.
The Pounding Process:
The process of pounding in this recipe is not to mash the veggies to a pulp beyond recognition.
Pound it lightly while mixing it all up with a spoon simultaneously so that the veggies get bruised, wilt and soften considerably which will help them to absorb the flavors of the dressing well.
Using a wooden masher (maththu) or a pestle will get the job done easily.
Vegan Thai Green Papaya Salad with stepwise photos:
1. Wash and peel the skin of the papaya using a peeler. Using a julienne peeler, scrape the papaya into thin slivers. Place the julienned papaya in ice cold water to keep it fresh and crisp. Set aside.
2. In a stone mortar, place garlic, red and green chilies and pound till they get crushed well and disintegrate into tiny bits. Add tamarind extract, soy sauce, palm sugar and mix till the sugar gets dissolved fully.
3. Transfer this dressing to a bowl, add 2 tablespoon roasted peanuts and pound lightly using a wooden masher till they are coarsely crushed.
4. Add long yard beans and tomatoes.
5. Pound once again till they both are slightly bruised and partially crushed. Do not pound the tomatoes to a pulp.
6. Drain the papaya slivers into a colander, discard the water and add the slivers to the bowl.
7. Pound lightly while simultaneously mixing everything with the help of a spoon making sure the dressing coats all of the papaya slivers well.
What else you can use in place of papaya or with it?
If you do not have or want to use green papaya, you can use cucumber or zucchini in place of it as both are bland and can absorb the other flavors well.
You can use also julienned raw green mango, carrots along with papaya to bring in more zing and add more color to the salad.
Notes:
If you like garlic, add 2 more of them. Since I do not eat raw garlic, I just used 1 for the flavor.
The Thais use birds eye chilies, since I don’t get it here, I have used 2 regular green chilies and 1 ripe green chili that turned red. Adjust according to your spice level.
Since papaya basically is bland and tasteless, you can add more chili than you would normally eat and it won’t taste very spicy.
Use regular jaggery, if you do not have palm sugar.
Use regular french beans if you do not have long yard beans.
Use deseeded regular country tomatoes in place of cherry tomatoes.
Basically there is no exact measurement for the dressing as it all depends on your tastebuds. Add more palm sugar if you want it to be sweet. More lemon juice, if you want it to be tangy. More soy sauce, if you want the umami and pungent taste to be predominant.
Check out other easy summer salad recipes like this,
Cucumber Salad with cilantro lime dressing
Vegan Thai Green Papaya Salad Recipe details below:
Recipe
Vegan Thai Green Papaya Salad
Ingredients
- Green Papaya - 1 big handful grated or julienned
- Cherry tomatoes - 6 to 8 nos
- Long yard beans - 4 nos
- Roasted peanuts - 4 tbsp
For the dressing:
- Green chilies - 2
- Ripe red chilies - 1
- Garlic - 1 clove
- Soy sauce - ½ tbsp
- Tamarind extract - 4 tbsp
- Palm sugar - ½ to 1 tbsp
- Lemon juice - from 1 or 2 lemons
Instructions
Preparation:
- Wash and peel the skin of the papaya using a peeler. I used ⅓ of a papaya to get 1 big handful of slivers.
- Using a julienne peeler, scrape the papaya into thin slivers. If you do not have julienne peeler, then just grate it using a box grater.
- Place the julienned papaya in ice cold water to keep it fresh and crisp. Set aside.
- Cut long yard beans into 1 to 1.5 inch pieces and set aside.
- Halve the cherry tomatoes.
Make the dressing:
- In a stone mortar, place garlic, red and green chilies and pound till they get crushed well and disintegrate into tiny bits.
- Add tamarind extract, soy sauce, palm sugar and mix till the sugar gets dissolved fully.
Make the salad:
- Transfer this dressing to a bowl, add 2 tablespoon roasted peanuts and pound lightly using a wooden masher till they are coarsely crushed.
- Add long yard beans and tomatoes. Pound once again till they both are slightly bruised and partially crushed. Do not pound the tomatoes to a pulp.
- Drain the papaya slivers into a colander, discard the water and add the slivers to the bowl.
- Pound lightly while simultaneously mixing everything with the help of a spoon.
- Make sure the dressing coats all of the papaya slivers well.
- Vegan thai green papaya salad is ready to be served.
- Serve it immediately or chilled after topping it with the remaining roasted peanuts.
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