• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Kendall W Ross
  • about me
  • Contact
  • Navigation Menu: Social Icons

    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • LinkedIn
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter

Home » Salads » Som Tum Thai Salad

Som Tum Thai Salad

2:18 am by Kendall Leave a Comment

Sharing is caring!

22 shares
  • Share
  • Tweet
som tum thai salad with green papaya
Jump to Recipe

What is Som Tum Thai Salad?

Som Tum Thai Salad is a heavy hitter on most Thai restaurant menu's. This is a simple fresh salad made with green papaya dressed with lime, sugar, birds eye chili. It's sweet sour salty and crunchy. It's a great texture dish and easy side.

What does Som Tum mean in English?

Som Tum refers to two things. The first is "som". Som literally means sour. While sour isn't a common flavor in western cuisine, in Asia it's one of the defining flavor profiles. That sour flavor is delivered by a variety of ingredients. It can be in the form of tamarind, a pod-like fruit with a sour pulp, or in the form of limes and lime juice or even ferments or vinegar.

The second part "tum" refers to the sound of the mortar hitting the pestal. The mortar and pestal is the original food processor from ancient times. A stone or ceramic bowl and a blunt object to grind the ingredients. In this recipe traditionally the ingredients are ground together to make the dressing.

Choosing your papaya

mise en place for green papaya

You can find green papaya at the asian market. Make sure its dark green and feels heavy. Any yellow spots and it may be beginning to ripen. While the green ones may not be sweet they have a great crunchy texture perfect for this dish.

How to make Som Tum Thai Salad with Green Papaya

This is my simple som tum thai salad. It may be more traditional to add long beans the long asian green bean and tomato. You can even add dried shrimp or crab if you're into that. I like to keep mine bare bones by just incorporating herbs and the dressing.

First peel the green papaya. I peel mine with a Kuhn Rikon y-peeler. For many chefs it is the only peeler.

A peeled green papaya

At this point there is a couple options depending on your knife skills. You can either grate it on all sides using a box grater to shred it into thin strands. Switch to another side once you get to the seeds.

If you have some knife skills it's also good to just cut by hand. I first learned this dish while I was cooking on tour. The other chefs who traveled to Thailand told me stories of how they just hack it with a machete. I like to go somewhere in the middle and shave it into planks with a mandolin then cut it by hand.

sliced planks of green papaya

After shredded or slicing your green papaya set it aside. Make your dressing. In a mortar and pestal smash and combine the single birds eye chili, garlic clove, lime juice and fish sauce. Make sure you massage the lime and roll it on the table before you squeeze it to get the most juice. Be careful with the chili unless you have a very high heat tolerance just one will light you up.

fish sauce lime juice chili and garlic

Coat the salad with the dressing and top with some toasted and chopped peanuts and torn mint. Eat this as a side dish with easy thai lettuce wraps or pad see ew with beef and bok choy.

som tum thai salad with green papaya

Som Tum Thai Salad with Green Papaya

A heavy hitter on most Thai menus. A simple fresh salad that is crunchy and healthy.
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 10 mins
Cook Time 1 min
Course Appetizer, Side Dish
Cuisine Asian, Thai
Servings 4

Equipment

  • Mortar and pestal
  • A peeler

Ingredients
  

  • 1 ea Green Papaya
  • 2 tbsp Roasted Peanuts roughly chopped
  • 1 ea Mint Sprig torn

Dressing

  • 2 tbsp Palm Sugar substitute brown sugar if you don't have it
  • 1 ea birds eye chili small red chili also known as thai chili
  • 1 ea Garlic Clove
  • 1 ea Lime massaged and squeezed for its juice
  • 2 tbsp Fish Sauce

Instructions
 

  • Peel the green papaya
  • Shred the green papaya by either using a box grater or by shaving planks with a knife or mandolin into thin strips.

Dressing

  • Combine all ingredients in a mortar and pestal. If you don't have one just minced the garlic and chili and whisk to combine with the other ingredients.
  • Dress the shredded papaya in the dressing.
  • Top with roasted peanuts and torn mint. Enjoy!
Keyword Green Papaya, Salad, Som Tum, Thai Salad
« Vietnamese Crepes CRISPY Bánh xèo with Pork and Shrimp
Gluten Free Chicken Nugget (McNuggets) »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Primary Sidebar

Welcome!

I'm Kendall. I'm a professional chef based out of Charlotte, NC. I've cooked in Colorado, New York City, and have traveled the world on tour cooking for several Grammy Award winning artists. Learn more here...

Featured Recipes

Beef Khao Soi Chiang Mai Curry Noodle

peanuts in a bowl with spices

Crockpot Boiled Peanuts

Gochujang Short Ribs

Easy Green Thai Curry

Authentic Filipino Chicken Adobo

Roasted Tomato Salsa Roja

Pupusas Revueltas Cheesy Pork and Bean Stuffed Tortillas

Curly Kale Curtido

Seriously Easy Overnight Pulled Pork

Gluten Free Chicken Nugget (McNuggets)

Som Tum Thai Salad

Vietnamese Crepes CRISPY Bánh xèo with Pork and Shrimp

Pad See Ew with Beef and Bok Choy

Easy Thai Lettuce Wraps with Spicy Chicken

Copyright © 2023 Kendall W Ross on the Foodie Pro Theme

22 shares