Thai Green Papaya Salad (Vegan Recipe)

Blogging Marathon# 48: Week 4/ Day 1

Theme: 1 Cuisine -- 3 Dishes

Dish: Thai Cuisine -- Thai Green Papaya Salad
My theme for this week's blogging marathon is pick 1 cuisine and cook 3 dishes. Valli gave us 4 countries to choose from and I went back and forth between Arabian and Thai cuisines, but finally ended up picking Thai. So for the next 3 days I will be posting 3 different courses of Thai dishes.

Today is a very famous Thai salad made with Green Papaya. My husband used to travel to Thailand quite frequently and he had nothing but praise for this Green Papaya salad. He tasted them at many street vendors and seemed to thoroughly enjoy it. We were at a party in a Thai restaurant recently where they served Green Papaya salad, it looked amazing but had dried shrimp and fish sauce in it, so we couldn't taste it. But it definitely inspired me to make the salad right away at home.

Green papayas are available in Indian groceries all year round. I have only seen ripe ones in the other grocery stores. Cucumber, Green beans or long bans can be used as substitutes. Thai poeple use clay mortar and pestle to mix and fold all the ingredients to ensure that the seasonings permeate the dense texture of the papaya, carrots and long beans. If the mortar and pestle is not available, a steel bowl with a rolling pin can be used to grind and mix the salad. DO NOT use a food processor, its blades will crush the ingredients too fine causing them to lose their crunchy texture and resulting in too much liquid.

Recipe from Buddha's Table cookbook.

Ingredients: Serves 2~3
Green Papaya - 1 small, peeled and shredded (about 2 cups)
Carrot - 1 medium, shredded
Garlic - 2 cloves, chopped
Fresh Green Chilies - 2, finely chopped
Long beans - 6~8, cut into 2" pieces, about ¼cup
Tomato - 1 medium, chopped (I used halved grape tomatoes)
Roasted Peanuts - ¼cup, chopped
Fresh Lime juice - 2tbsp or more to taste
Light Soy sauce - 2tbsp, or more to taste
Palm sugar - 1tbsp, finely chopped or melted (add more for taste)
Cabbage/ Lettuce - 2 cups, cleaned and cut into bite size pieces

Method:

• Select a firm green papaya and shred into thin matchsticks using a shredder or mandolin. Peel and shred the carrot .
• In a clay mortar and pestle or a large steel bowl, crush the garlic first. Add and crush the chilies, then add the long beans and continue crushing until well mixed.
• Add papaya and carrot. Lightly pound with the pestle while simultaneously using a large spoon to toss the mixture.Continue pounding and tossing until well combined.
• Add tomatoes, peanuts, lime juice, soy sauce and sugar. Continue pounding and tossing to mix well and evenly distribute the flavors.
• Taste and adjust the flavor with more soy sauce, lime juice and sugar to taste. 
• Serve with the cabbage or lettuce on the side.

Let's check out what my fellow marathoners have cooked today for BM# 48.