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Green Papaya Salad

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salads•thai•contains seafood, dairy-free, gluten-free
20 minutes•4 servings•

Ingredients

  • 5 cups green papaya – peeled, seeded, shredded
  • 4 pieces Thai bird’s eye chilies – stemmed
  • 2 cloves garlic – peeled
  • 2 tbsp palm sugar – finely chopped or grated
  • 2 tbsp dried shrimp
  • 1/4 cup roasted unsalted peanuts
  • 1 cup yardlong beans – cut into 1.5-inch pieces
  • 3 tbsp fish sauce
  • 3 tbsp fresh lime juice
  • 1 cup cherry tomatoes – halved
Green Papaya Salad

Instructions

  1. 1.

    Set up a large mortar and pestle (or a sturdy bowl and a muddler/rolling pin). Prepare all ingredients: shred the green papaya, halve the cherry tomatoes, and cut the yardlong beans.

  2. 2.

    Add the chilies, garlic, and palm sugar to the mortar. Pound into a coarse paste, 30–45 seconds, until the sugar dissolves and the aromatics are fragrant.

  3. 3.

    Add the dried shrimp and half of the peanuts. Pound lightly to bruise and mix, about 10 seconds.

  4. 4.

    Add the yardlong beans and lightly bruise to crack them without crushing, 10–15 seconds.

  5. 5.

    Pour in the fish sauce and fresh lime juice. Stir to dissolve the palm sugar and combine the dressing.

  6. 6.

    Add the cherry tomatoes and pound gently just to release their juices, 10–15 seconds.

  7. 7.

    Add the shredded green papaya. Use a spoon to lift while pounding with the pestle, tossing and bruising until the strands slightly soften but remain crisp, 1–2 minutes. Taste and balance: adjust with more fish sauce (salty), lime (sour), or palm sugar (sweet) as needed.

  8. 8.

    Transfer the salad to a platter. Sprinkle with the remaining peanuts and serve immediately.

Green Papaya Salad is a bright, crunchy, and refreshing mortar-pounded salad that balances spicy heat, bracing lime sourness, deep fish sauce savoriness, and a gentle sweetness from palm sugar. Shredded unripe papaya brings a juicy snap that soaks up the punchy dressing while staying crisp. Yardlong beans and tomatoes add color and texture, and roasted peanuts lend a nutty finish.

The dish traces its roots to the Lao and Isan (northeastern Thailand) culinary tradition of pounded salads made in a mortar and pestle. Over time it spread across Thailand, where the best-known version, som tam thai, became a national staple and a street-food icon. Numerous regional variations exist, including versions with fermented fish (pla ra), salted field crab, or without dried shrimp, but the core identity remains the hand-pounded technique that marries the flavors in the mortar.