PAPAYA SALAD

Refreshing and will scare the scaredy cats away. Keep this recipe close so you can weed out the real foodies from the fakers. Up the funk and spice to really test them. Spice up any BBQ with this tasty papaya salad—also highly customizable. Is it even papaya if you can’t customize it?

This version has minimal funk and spice (we’re feeding kids, and me—I’m old). But a few things you can add to make it even more delicious are: thai green eggplants, yardlong beans, kang kong (as a side), khao poon noodles, palm sugar instead of cane sugar, fresh-roasted peanuts, padek, salted crab, and sooooo many other customizations.

Papaya salad with papaya shredded the traditional way (knife cut and sliced).

Ingredients for the Salad

• 2 cups papaya, shredded about 2-4 mm thick

• 1 cup mango, shredded about 1 cm thick

• 10–11 cherry tomatoes, sliced in half or quarters

• ½ lime, juice (rind optional)

• 2 clove garlic

• 1-4 whole Thai chili pepper (birds eye chili), destemmed

• ⅓ cup honey roasted peanuts

Ingredients for the Dressing

• 2 tablespoons sugar

• ¼ cup tamarind concentrate (mix block with 2-3 cups of water and strain to remove seeds/membrane)

• ½ teaspoon crab paste

• 2 teaspoon fish sauce

• ½ teaspoon shrimp paste

• ½ teaspoon salt

• ¼ teaspoon MSG*

Papaya salad ingredients — brand names and packaging are shown solely for informational and identification purposes. No sponsorship, endorsement, or affiliation is intended or implied.

Instructions

NOTE: At this time, the sauce should be tasted and adjusted to your liking. Adding flavor at the end is still an option in step 16 (though it’ll be harder to mix it in). Adjusting the flavor at this time is ideal because the pre-approved taste will permeate through to the papaya/mango. Any additional flavor added later will likely sit on the outside of the papaya/mango.

Serve with cabbage, kang kong, or romaine or iceberg lettuce.

Considerations:

• Papaya salad is typically served as a side dish in a family-style meal which includes rice, protein, vegetables, and pepper sauce. Though, it’s also commonly eaten as a snack or a dare (loaded with peppers)!

• Papaya substitutions: khao poon noodles, cucumber (though I like to cut them to pinky size logs), green mangos, or anything else that has that crunch.

• Pound the pepper and garlic with the salt (and MSG) first. The pepper and garlic needs to be a paste before moving on to the next step. If the garlic/pepper is not pounded into a paste at this time, it’ll be difficult to pound it later (as you add more ingredients).

• I like to make the paste using the least liquidy ingredients first to minimize splatter. Once I get to the liquidy ingredients, pounding is minimized and I utilize a mix-it-in approach.

• Peanut alternatives - Our house is not a peanut-friendly house, but I know of a handful of people who have serious peanut allergies. For these folks, I make an entirely different batch, use entirely different equipment, and either omit tree nuts all together or use walnuts instead. I always consult them ahead of time with every single step/detail.

• Consider using a mandoline to shred the papaya and use a cut-resistant gloves.

• Cherry tomatoes are the preferred tomatoes, but roma tomatoes work great too. You want the tomatoes to be slightly underripe (crunchy) or just ripe. Overripe tomatoes will turn to mush.

• Use whole red peppers (fresh, frozen, or dried). Green peppers have a slightly different taste than ripe red peppers., but green peppers are acceptable if there are no red peppers. And preferably try not to use red pepper flakes—I find they’re not as tasty as fresh/frozen whole peppers.

This recipe comes from my cookbook (still a work in progress). Find me on my social media (tiktok/youtube are where I’m most active) for the latest updates!

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* MSG is a common ingredient in my family’s cooking. You can choose to use it or not. At the end of the day, you should be informed about your ingredients. Here’s an article that I like to share with friends/family who want to learn more about MSG so they can make an informed decision: https://www.fda.gov/food/food-additives-petitions/questions-and-answers-monosodium-glutamate-msg