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Thai papaya salad

Som tam

This recipe was provided by Tanja Rogers.

I’m very excited to introduce you to one of Thailand’s national dishes, som tam (ส้มตำ). This recipe is very simple, authentic, and easy. The first destination on my Gapshida tour was to visit Tanja Rogers in Canterbury, England (read my blog about the trip here). She’s been one of my readers for a long time, and she invited me to her house to share some traditional Thai recipes that she learned from her mother. For this salad she replaced papaya with swede (also known as rutabaga) because it’s not easy for her to find a firm green papaya where she lives. When made with swede, this salad tastes almost the same as if it were made with papaya. Tanja is now posting her Thai recipes on YouTube which is great!

I love the way all the ingredients are mixed with a mortar and pestle. And there are many variations on the recipe, just like kimchi.

In the 1990s, when I traveled to Chiang Mai, Thailand, I took a few cooking classes. One of the dishes that I learned was papaya salad. I loved the flavor, taste, and the way of mixing, slightly pounding the ingredients. “Koong koong koong!” The pounding sound from the kitchen will make any family excited about the dish.

This is an authentic way of preparing a spicy Thai papaya salad! “Let’s bruise thin papaya strips with garlic, chilies, palm sugar, lime, and fish sauce!” It’s a great chance for you to learn a real Thai recipe, and a spicy yet refreshing salad !

Enjoy the recipe and special thanks to Tanya Rogers!
Cooking time: 30 minutes

Ingredients for 2 servings

  • 2 cups of shredded green papaya (or swede/rutabaga)
  • 2 tbs of toasted peanuts
  • 2 cloves of peeled garlic
  • 1-2 fresh birds eye chili (or more depending on tolerance)
  • 1 tbs of dried shrimp
  • ½ piece palm sugar
  • 7 cherry tomatoes
  • juice of ½ lime
  • 1½ tbs of fish sauce
  • 1-2 tbs Thai snake beans (or green beans) cut into 1 inch sticks

Directions

  1. Roughly crush a small handful of unsalted peanuts with mortar and pestle. Set aside. Wipe the mortar and pestle clean.
  2. Melt palm sugar in a small pan at low or medium heat, adding 2 tbs of water. The cooking process should form a shiny and thick syrup. This makes it easier to mix the sugar with the salad.
  3. Peel the papaya (or swede), shred it with a shredder (or a mandolin slicer) to thin strips and soak them in cold water while you prepare the rest of the salad. This makes the papaya crunchier and gets rid of any excess starch from the swede.

    swede

  4. Cut the green beans into one-inch pieces. Throw away the endings.
  5. Take the chilies and peeled garlic and give them a gentle bash with mortar and pestle. You still ought to see bits and pieces, not a puree. Add the shrimp and continue bashing. Add the crushed peanuts and mix well.
  6. Add the shredded papaya and continue bashing, but not too hard. Just enough so the mixture soaks up the flavours. Use a bigger spoon as a support tool, that way you can shift the salad in the mortar and it doesn’t fall out while bashing and mixing.
  7. Add the liquid palm sugar, tomatoes, beans, lime juice and fish sauce. Continue to lightly bash, shift with the spoon, and mix a little more.

    palm sugar

  8. Serve on a big dish or bowl, sprinkle some crushed peanuts on top! Voila!

In Thailand it’s usually served with sticky rice and along another dish called larb, a spicy minced meat salad with raw vegetables.

Maangchi’s variation
If you can’t find swede or green papaya, you could use turnip and cucumber. Today my friend came over to my house for lunch, so I made som tam with turnip and cucumber. It turned out very delicious.

palm sugar

This is my most recent som tam made with mango and cucumber. I’m addicted to som tam!  -Jan.5,2012-

som tam made with turnip and cucumber

My friend said she will make it when she goes home! Yay! Som tam, som tam!

 

 

Posted on Tuesday, December 20th, 2011 at 9:30 pm. Last updated on July 29, 2021.
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19 Comments:

  1. jessie661 Los Angeles joined 5/10 & has 1 comment
    Posted April 20th, 2015 at 12:45 pm | or create a profile.

    Just a quick question… Do you think I can use turnips instead of the rutabaga? I’ve looked at I cannot find rutabaga’s :) thanks! Love Green Papaya Salad, but I’m trying to watch the sugar content and carbs in my diet.

  2. alohanoa HI joined 3/14 & has 3 comments
    Posted February 18th, 2015 at 2:31 pm | or create a profile.

    Can you substitute white sugar or brown sugar for the palm sugar if you can’t find it?

  3. Jennifer joined 9/08 & has 20 comments
    Posted November 5th, 2013 at 2:39 am | or create a profile.

    I use cucumber when I don’t have papaya and also use tamerind and a bit of crab paste as well to add for salted flavor. My mother is from Issan part of thailand where they use pickled fish sauce for som tam.

  4. Charmaine Singapore joined 6/11 & has 18 comments
    Posted December 1st, 2012 at 8:55 am | or create a profile.

    Hi maangchi ! Today , I made som tam with apple ! It was a little spicy and very crunchy ! Yum !

    • arale1402 United Kingdom joined 9/10 & has 14 comments
      Posted December 30th, 2012 at 11:09 am | or create a profile.

      oh this sounds delicious! It makes me very happy to hear that you all are trying out different versions with alternative ingredients. Normally Thai people make Som Dtum with carrots if they cannot find papaya (as stated correctly by unchienne below). I will try the apple version. Did you use a sour apple like Granny Smith?

      Happy New Year !!

  5. unchienne Georgia, USA joined 10/08 & has 9 comments
    Posted May 28th, 2012 at 8:36 pm | or create a profile.

    Yum, yum. I love papaya salad. It goes very, very well with stewed mackerel. Grab some hot rice, a bit of stewed mackerel and a bit of salad all on a spoon…the perfect bite.

    Made mine with the swede/rutabaga. It was great for those first few bites but after a day or so the rutabaga flavor started to come out very strongly…unlike the papaya which remains sort of neutral as a base for the sauce. I think maybe one reason was that I forgot to rinse the starch off. Anyways, it was still delicious. Thank you for posting.

    Oh, and on a side note, when my mom’s Thai friends couldn’t get hold of green papaya, they’d use grated carrot. I can’t wait to try out the alternate mango and cucumber versions you’ve listed here.

  6. chef Benedict Manila, Philippines joined 11/11 & has 45 comments
    Posted January 12th, 2012 at 9:03 am | or create a profile.

    i love thai dishes and thai food! the balance of sweet spicy sour and salty! i was in phuket thailand 3 years ago on a cruise from singapore! :D you know what i have a thai friend in fb who also loves food like me and my fellow auditionee in biggest loser asia! :D

  7. arale1402 United Kingdom joined 9/10 & has 14 comments
    Posted January 1st, 2012 at 3:15 am | or create a profile.

    Happy New Year everyone!! ^^

  8. Maha Jordan joined 12/10 & has 14 comments
    Posted December 27th, 2011 at 9:57 am | or create a profile.

    It’s a refreshing light recipe Tnaya , Thanks foe sharing it with us , I noticed that you have a beautiful traditional Tunisian ” green-yellow” dish .. do you know its Tunisian?

  9. Sunshine01 Nevada joined 12/11 & has 2 comments
    Posted December 23rd, 2011 at 4:57 pm | or create a profile.

    Wow didn’t expect to see Thai food recipe on your site! I’m Thai and Thai food is my favourite(of course!) I also love Korean food so it’s awesome to see somtom here. It looks yummy but not sure if I could find swede in states?

  10. DominiqueEchard North Carolina joined 5/09 & has 36 comments
    Posted December 21st, 2011 at 9:58 am | or create a profile.

    What a nice video. Looking forward to more from the UK!

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