Green Papaya Salad

The Green Papaya Salad is a quiet performer. It is nutrition-packed, hydrating and full of goodness. If you seek these you can have it all with this salad.

The health benefits of green papaya are not as commonly known as that of the ripe one, but it is actually loaded with enzymes that help to breakdown fats, carbs and proteins. Have it to boost your metabolism. Cleanse your digestive tract with its help. Enjoy the increased immunity provided by the carotenoids in raw papaya too. Not to mention fibre and a host of other blessings of this quiet fruit, that generally no one talks about.

Green papaya can be had both in cooked and raw form, but not if you are pregnant. This is because the latex and enzymes in green papaya may cause unwanted complications. They can instead go for the bean sprouts salad or other such safer variants.

On the other hand, lactating mothers are encouraged to have a lot of this fruit, in both green and ripe form.

I stock up on raw papaya for tenderising meats for my tandoori preparations. We eat up the rest of it in different forms, including this one.

The Steps to Making the Salad

The Green Papaya Salad is also called ‘Som Tum‘. It is of Thai origin. You will love the blend of freshness provided by the hydrating grated papaya, the crunch of the roasted peanuts and the colour of the tomatoes. You will notice the interplay of flavours of the soya sauce, sugar, lime, chillies and garlic that gives the salad its ability to be eaten up as it is.

Soaking the Ingredients for the Salad Dressing

Deseed 1-2 red chillies (add more if you like its fiery flavour). Be careful not to touch them while you do this, as the heat of the chillies will be on your finger tips for quite a while after this. Soak the skins in around two tablespoons of water for 15 minutes.

Soak around 5 inches of tamarind/imli  in hot water for about 15 minutes. Squeeze the pulp and extract the thick juice. You will need 2 tbsp of the juice.

Grating the Papaya

Speed up this process with a food processor. However, I always recommend grating by hand as it looks more even, and also gives the tummy and hand muscles a great workout! Exit flab!

Around ½ a kg of the fruit should be enough for four servings. You will need 2 cups of grated unripe papaya.

Roasting the Peanuts

Roast the raw peanuts gently (without oil) in a thick skillet or kadhai. Then cool it slightly and crush using a rolling pin. In case you use a blender, use it on ‘pulse’ setting to prevent it from getting too powdery.

The recipe needs ¾ cups of crushed peanuts, but you can add more if you like them.

Chopping Tomatoes

You can use cherry tomatoes for this. They look adorable whole or halved. I however, did not have any, so I used the regular tomatoes. Only, make sure you use only the fleshy portion. Chop this into small cubes. Do not add the pulpy portion, you can use it up in some other gravy or tomato rasam or just eat it up!

Making the Green Papaya Salad Dressing

In a small grinder, first blend the garlic pod, green and soaked red chillies till smooth. Now add the sugar, salt, tamarind juice, soya sauce, fresh coriander and lemon juice. Blend well.

Assembling the Salad

Toss the prepared dressing into the mixture of the grated papaya and the crushed peanuts. Mix well. Add chopped coriander, and peanuts to garnish the salad. Serve chilled.

Green Papaya Salad

Recipe by Sheetal RabindranCourse: SaladsCuisine: ThaiDifficulty: Easy

Servings

4

servings

Prep time

20

minutes

Enjoy this super nutritious, cleansing and hydrating salad. The wholesome mixture of colour, texture and flavour makes this a winner.

Ingredients

• 2 cups raw papaya (grated)

• ¾ to 1 cup peanuts (roasted and crushed)

• 1 cup tomatoes (only the fleshy portion, chopped) OR cherry tomatoes (halved)

• 1-2 red chillies (deseeded and soaked in 2 tbsp of water)

• 1 green chilli

• 1 pod of garlic (peeled)

• 2 tbsp tamarind pulp/chutney

• 3 tbsp + 1 tbsp coriander leaves (chopped)

• 1 tsp soya sauce

• 1-2 tsp lime juice

• 1 tsp salt

• 1 tbsp sugar

Directions

• Grind the soaked red chillies, green chilli and the garlic pod in a blender.
• Add the tamarind juice, soya sauce, lime juice, 3 tbsps of fresh coriander, sugar and salt. Blend well.
• In a large bowl, mix the papaya, tomatoes, peanuts well. Now add the dressing. Mix thoroughly. Check the seasoning.
• Serve chilled, garnished with some coriander leaves and peanuts.

Notes

• Adjust the lime juice, salt, sugar and quantities of peanuts and tomatoes to your liking.