Thai Papaya Salad is a colourful, lively dish known for its harmonious blending of sweet, sour, salty, and spicy tastes. This juicy salad is a staple of Thai cuisine since it sometimes serves as a light lunch but instead as a complementary dish. Thai Papaya Salad uses shredded green papaya, fresh herbs, and a luxurious dressing. A Thai papaya salad recipe requires peeling and grating green papaya into thin strips with a grater or a mandoline; add cherry tomatoes, long beans, and carrots for colour and crunch. However, the absolute star of the dish is the dressing, combining lime juice, fish sauce, or soy sauce for the vegetarian version, sugar, and chilli peppers. Traditionally, all ingredients are pounded in a mortar and pestle together to enhance the flavour before adding it to the papaya. This dish begins by pounding garlic, chillies, and sugar, mixing in lime juice, fish sauce, and tomatoes. To finish the garnish, sprinkle crushed peanuts and fresh herbs such as cilantro or Thai basil over the papaya salad. This light, healthy, and full-of-flavour Thai papaya salad goes quite well for any occasion and provides every single bite with a unique flavour profile.

• 2 cups papaya
• 2 tsp peanuts
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1-2 tsp green beans
• 7 cherry tomatoes
• 1/2 lime
• 1 1/2 tsp fish sauce

• Let's begin the recipe of the Thai papaya salad. Take 2 cups of shredded green papaya, the base of the salad.
• Toast two tablespoons of peanuts.
• Once toasted, put aside the peanuts and prepare the rest of the ingredients.
• You will require two cloves of peeled garlic.
• Garlic adds an aromatic, savoury element to the dish and enhances the other flavours of the dish.
• The fresh bird's eye chillies give the Thai papaya salad a delicious chilly flavour.
• Garlic and chillies give a very characteristic Thai Papaya Salad boldness.
• The other highly flavour-creating ingredient is the addition of 1 tablespoon of dried shrimp, which adds a depth of umami flavour and texture to the salad.
• Dried shrimp are used liberally throughout Thai dishes, adding an intense, savoury depth. If you are vegetarian, you can omit or substitute with a vegetarian version of fish sauce instead.
• Break the dried shrimp into small bits so that they distribute throughout the salad.
• To balance the savoury flavours, add 1/2 piece of palm sugar.
• Grate the sugar and let it dissolve within the mixture.
• Cut seven cherry tomatoes in half or quarters.
• Add the tomatoes to the bowl with the papaya and all other ingredients.
• Squeeze the juice of 1/2 lime over the mixture.
• Add 1 1/2 tablespoons of fish sauce to the depth of flavour - an indispensable item in Thai cooking. When fish sauce is used, the savoury umami flavour will meld with the lime juice, balancing sweet with salty, sour, and spicy flavours.
• Finally, to add some extra texture and crunch, toss in 1 to 2 tablespoons of Thai snake beans or cut up green beans into 1-inch sticks.
• The bean adds a zing to the freshness of the salad and affects the whole consistency of the dish. You can also grind the beans a bit with a mortar and pestle to spread out their flavours, which is the way most traditional Thai Papaya Salads are prepared.
• Now it is time to combine everything.
• Traditionally, Thai Papaya Salad is prepared in a mortar and pestle where ingredients are finely crushed for their juice and flavours.
• But if you don't have a mortar and pestle, then using a wooden spoon or a muddler will also do. Just press the ingredients gently together with your tool of choice.
• The idea is not to mash everything entirely but rather to allow the ingredients to relax and blend the juices.
• The recipe of Thai Papaya Salad is ready to be served. It's refreshing as a dish on its own, as well as part of the side dish for grilled meats or seafood.