Som Tum Papaya Salad

Total time:
25 minutes

The Som Tum Papaya Salad is one of my childhood favorites. It has every flavor under the sun: Spicy! Sour! Sweet! Salty! And braver souls looking to go the distance can kick it up even more by adding shrimp paste. For a full meal, serve with sticky rice and barbecued chicken. YUM! TIP: Green papaya can be a bit difficult to find, so if there’s no papaya in sight and you’re really craving these flavors, you can always substitute with a carrot.

Ingredients

1
green papaya, peeled and julienned
6
whole cherry tomatoes
3-4
garlic cloves
½
cup of green beans
3
whole Thai chili peppers
tablespoons of peanuts
1
tablespoon of dried shrimp
fresh lime, quartered
palm sugar, thinly shaved
fish sauce
shrimp paste (optional)

Preparation

Step 1

Combine dried shrimp, garlic cloves, cherry tomatoes, Thai chilis and palm sugar in the mortar bowl and gently pound with pestle

Step 2

Add fresh lime to mortar and gently pound

Step 3

Add green beans and peanuts, gently pound

Step 4

Add julienned papaya to mortar bowl, top with a large drizzle of fish sauce and continue to pound gently

Step 5

When ingredients have thoroughly combined, the salad will have achieved a balanced flavor profile of sweet, salty, spicy and sour

Step 6

Serve with sticky rice

Specialty ingredients you'll need:

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