Serves 4 as a side
Ingredients
- 1 garlic clove
- 1-3 Thai bird’s eye chillis (4-6 if you like it extra spicy)
- 1 lime, cut to wedges
- 30g (scant ¼ cup) palm (coconut) sugar
- 30ml (2 tbsp) light soy sauce
- 1 medium green papaya, julienned*
- 1 carrot, julienned
- 50g (1/3 cup) uncooked yard long or fine green beans, cut into roughly ‘carrot baton’ length
- 100g (1/2 cup) cherry tomatoes, halved
- 20g (1/8 cup) roasted peanuts, optional
Method
- Add garlic and chillis into krok** and smash with pestle to mix them coarsely before adding coconut sugar and pounding until fully dissolved.
- Add soy sauce and the juice of one lime and mix well.
- Add julienned green papaya, carrots and yard long beans to the somtam and smash them all together, and toss until thoroughly dressed – this is much easier with the help of a big serving spoon.
- Roughly smash peanuts, if using, and then add cherry tomatoes and toss them around to mix through the salad. Serve with glutinous rice for an easy meal, or as a side salad.
Per 100g Calories: 84, Carbohydrates: 12.0g, Sugars: 11.0g, Fat: 2.6g, Saturates: 0.5g, Protein: 2.6g, Salt: 1.0g
* These can be hard to find, and are very different to ripe papaya. If you can’t find green papaya, we recommend using fresh Granny Smith apples.
** Traditionally, somtam is made in a large wooden krok (what Thai’s call a pestle and mortar), because green papaya especially needs to be pounded to be slightly softened and to take up all of the flavours. If you don’t have access to a wooden krok, we recommend using Granny Smith apples, finely chopping other ingredients such as chillies and garlic, and combining in a mixing bowl.
Recipe Courtesy of Greedy Khao (www.greedykhao.com)
Taken from June 2018 (Issue 39) Vegan Life Magazine
