Som Tum, Green Papaya Salad

This dish requires no cooking and is very fast to make… if you have green papayas (unripe papaya). But green papaya is very similar to cucumber, so if you wanted to make a spicy cucumber peanut salad, you could probably modify this recipe.

2 cups shredded fresh green papaya
6 cherry tomatoes
2 tablespoons dried shrimp (optional, if you like the salty fishy taste)
1/4 cup roasted peanuts
4-6 fresh Thai chiles, remove stems
3-4 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

Prep:

Use the flat side of your knife to crush the garlic. Crush the chillies too. Then chop them all up — roughly. (This recipe really calls for a mortar and pestel but we’re cooking in a small kitchen, so you can get by without it). Then mix in the peanuts and rough chop the entire mess. You’re trying to ground and chop and crush it all together to that the favors come out. Begin mixing in some shredded papaya and beat on it, smooshing everything together, flipping it over, crushing it down. Keep adding papaya as it becomes integrated. Don’t worry about bruising anything, this is really how to make it!

Then add your equal parts sugar, fish sauce and lime juice. (I skipped the fish sauce and used soy sauce instead to make it vegetarian).

Slice the cherry tomatoes, mix them in gently and serve with more peanuts as garnish or dried shrimp.

This post is art of my November series that ran on my Facebook page, Traveler’s Thai Kitchen.