Som tam, a vegetarian recipe from Thailand

Name: Som tam
Prep time: 25 min
Total time: 25 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Thailand
Ingredients: 1 green papaya (about 600 g); 12 cherry tomatoes, halved; 6 long beans (or 100 g green beans), cut into 3 cm pieces; 2 garlic cloves; 2 to 4 bird's eye chillies; 2 tbsp palm sugar; 3 tbsp lime juice; 2 tbsp light soy sauce; ½ tsp salt; 3 tbsp toasted peanuts; 1 tbsp crumbled fried tofu in place of dried shrimp (optional)

Method

Peel the papaya, halve it and scoop out the seeds. Shred the flesh into fine matchsticks with a julienne grater or a knife, and drop them into iced water for 10 minutes to crisp up.
In a large mortar, pound the garlic and chillies to a rough paste.
Add the palm sugar, lime juice, soy sauce and salt, and pound until the sugar dissolves.
Add the beans and bruise them lightly without crushing, then the tomatoes, pressing just enough to release their juice.
Drain the papaya and add it by the handful. Alternate gentle pounding with stirring using a spoon, to coat it without turning it to mush.
Taste and adjust; the salad should be sour, sweet, salty and hot all at once.
Serve straight away on plates, scattered with crushed peanuts, with sticky rice or raw cabbage leaves.

Without a mortar, mix everything in a bowl while pressing the ingredients firmly with the back of a spoon. Som tam does not keep, so make it and eat it right away. Palm sugar is pounded here with garlic, bird’s eye chillies and lime; our article on chilli peppers includes this salad among other sweet and hot recipes.

The techniques this recipe uses

Drain and rinse
Canning liquid clouds a sauce and salts it blind: rinse until the water runs clear.

Frequently asked questions

How do I keep the papaya crunchy?

Two things. Soak the shredded strands in iced water for 10 minutes to firm them, then in the mortar alternate very light taps of the pestle with turning the salad over with a spoon. The pestle is there to coat the papaya, not to crush it.

What if I have no mortar and pestle?

Mix everything in a bowl, pressing the ingredients firmly with the back of a spoon, especially the garlic, chillies and beans. They need to be bruised to release their juices and dissolve the palm sugar, which is what the mortar does naturally.

How do I pick a usable green papaya?

It should be completely firm to the touch, very pale inside and with no sweet smell: here it is a vegetable, not a ripe fruit. One starting to yellow will be soft and sweet, and will mash under the pestle.

Chilli peppers, from mild to Scotch Bonnet

How Caribbean and African cuisines harness the perfume and heat of Scotch Bonnet, and how others pair chilli with palm sugar, tamarind or pomegranate.

The tomato, three centuries to conquer the world

The tomato reached Europe in the sixteenth century and was distrusted for two hundred years. What each kitchen made of it, and the handling that matters.

Som tam

Method

The techniques this recipe uses

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Nutrition per serving

Frequently asked questions

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