Thai Green Papaya Salad – Som Tum

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Thai Green Papaya Salad – Som Tum – is a popular Thai salad with crunchy green papaya, peanuts, and a tangy sweet-sour dressing! Learn how to make it with lots of step-by-step pictures.

Papaya Salad, called Som Tum in Thai, is one of the most popular and well-known Thai salads. Clearly deserved, as it represents one of the best flavors of Thailand. Thai green papaya salad is a very fresh, crunchy, tangy, healthy, and slightly sour salad that can be enjoyed daily as an appetizer or side dish!

It gets its name from its main ingredient, green papaya. Unripe, meaning green, papaya makes an excellent salad ingredient. Shredded green papaya is almost neutral in flavor and slightly crunchy. Similar to an English cucumber, but somewhat less watery.

Thai Papaya salad is rather quick and easy to prepare. What helps is having a mortar and julienne peeler at hand.

The authentic papaya salad recipe is made with shrimp paste or dried shrimp and fish sauce. In this recipe, you will learn how to make a vegetarian/vegan green papaya salad that tastes just as delicious and intense as the original.

Papaya Salad without Papaya

Green, unripe papaya can often only be found in Asian Shops/Markets and are relatively expensive. However, if you don’t have an Asia Shop nearby, you can replace the green papaya with 1-2 English cucumbers.

The taste of the salad is not identical to the original if using cucumbers, but it’s a proper alternative. So you don’t have to miss out on this delicious Thai salad.

Ingredients

See recipe card for quantities.

• Thai Green Papaya → You can get green papaya at the Asian Market. Slice it with a julienne peeler for the authentic papaya salad shape. The green seeds aren’t edible.
• Thai Long Beans → Extremely long Thai green beans. Available at the Asian Market. Can be omitted.
• Carrot & Cherry Tomatoes
• Peanuts → A must in Thai salads. Provide a nice crunch!
• Garlic, Thai Chili Pepper, Fresh Lime Juice, Soy Sauce, Sugar → These are the dressing ingredients. If you don’t like your salad spicy, omit the chili peppers or reduce to only one. The garlic also infuses some heat in the dressing.

Step-by-Step Instructions

This visual step-by-step instruction will help you along the way – definitely recommended if you’re a cooking beginner! 

• Place garlic cloves and chilies in a mortar and pound into a paste. Add brown sugar and Thai long beans, pound again until the sugar is dissolved. Add tomatoes and gently pound. → You can work in batches if your mortar is too small.

• Peel, then cut green papaya and carrot in julienne strips using a julienne peeler.

• Place green papaya and carrot along with the pounded ingredients, lime juice, soy sauce, and half of the crushed peanuts in a large bowl. Toss to combine. → What I learned in Thailand is to pound all ingredients with the pestle in one hand while tossing the ingredients with a spoon in the other hand for about one minute.

• Serve in a large bowl and sprinkle with the remaining peanuts.

Storage

Store leftover salad in an airtight container in the fridge. Keeps fresh for one day.

More Asian Recipes You’ll Love

• Vermicelli Noodle Salad
• Thai Cucumber Salad
• Asian Cucumber Salad with Sesame
• Thai Drunken Noodles – Pad Kee Mao
• Vegetarian Pad See Ew
• Vegetarian Pad Thai

📖 Recipe

Thai Green Papaya Salad

Aline Cueni

Thai Green Papaya Salad – Som Tum – is a popular Thai salad with crunchy green papaya, peanuts, and a tangy sweet-sour dressing!

5 from 2 votes

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Cook Time 12 mins

Total Time 12 mins

Course Salad

Cuisine Thai

Servings 4

Calories 136 kcal

Ingredients

 

1x2x3x

• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 Thai chilies seeded for less spicy
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 6 (75 g) Thai long beans cut into 2-inch/5 cm pieces (Note 1)
• 5 cherry tomatoes halved
• 1 pound (450 g) green papaya (Note 2)
• 1 carrot
• 2 tbsp lime juice
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• ¼ cup (35 g) unsalted peanuts crushed in a mortar

Instructions

 

• Place garlic and chilies in a mortar and pound into a paste. Add brown sugar and Thai long beans, pound again until the sugar is dissolved. Add tomatoes and gently pound. → You can work in batches if your mortar is too small.
• Peel, then cut green papaya and carrot in julienne strips using a julienne peeler.
• Place green papaya and carrot along with the pounded ingredients, lime juice, soy sauce, and half of the crushed peanuts in a large bowl. Toss to combine. → What I learned in Thailand is to pound all ingredients with the pestle in one hand while tossing the ingredients with a spoon in the other hand for about one minute.
• Serve in a large bowl and sprinkle with the remaining peanuts.

Notes

1. Thai Long Beans (Thai Green Beans) can be found at the Asian Market. Can be omitted or substituted with blanched green beans.
2. Green Papaya is available in Asian Markets. Alternatively, substitute with 1-2 English cucumbers. The taste won’t be the same, but it’s a great way to not miss out on this delicious Thai salad, even if you can’t get your hands on green papaya.
3. Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 day.

Recommended Products

Measuring Set

Mortar

Julienne Peeler

Nutrition

Nutrition Facts

Thai Green Papaya Salad

Amount Per Serving

Calories 136 Calories from Fat 45

% Daily Value*

Fat 5g8%

Saturated Fat 1g6%

Polyunsaturated Fat 2g

Monounsaturated Fat 2g

Sodium 527mg23%

Potassium 422mg12%

Carbohydrates 22g7%

Fiber 4g17%

Sugar 14g16%

Protein 4g8%

Vitamin A 3807IU76%

Vitamin C 82mg99%

Calcium 46mg5%

Iron 1mg6%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

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