Papaya Salad Som Tam Thai – Our authentic original recipe

Walking through one of Thailand's bustling streets, you'll hear the rhythmic thud of wooden pestles on clay mortars as vendors prepare various versions of Som Tam – pounded salads combined with a sour dressing.

The most famous representative of this category is undoubtedly Som Tam Thai, a salad made from shredded green papayas in Central Thailand, which has become synonymous with the term "Som Tam."

We'll show you how to prepare an authentic papaya salad here in Germany yourself, without having to buy dozens of ingredients from an Asian market. With our ready-to-use Som Tam Sauce, you'll have everything you need. Fresh, without preservatives, and authentically Thai. Made right here in Bavaria.

Another prerequisite for Tam-style salads is a mortar and pestle, specifically a wooden or clay mortar with a wooden pestle.

The purpose of pounding salad ingredients is to gently crush and break them down so that they release their juices without losing their crunchy texture.

The heavy granite mortar and pestle are excellent for grinding fibrous aromatics and dried spices into a fine paste, but not for pounding that requires a lighter touch. The larger capacity of a large clay or wooden mortar is ideal for mixing salad, but although they are larger, they are much easier to handle.

In our pictures, you'll see a serving for 2 - 3 people. Depending on your taste, you can add more or less of one ingredient or another. The Som Tam recipe doesn't just work as a papaya salad: experimental cooks can also replace the green papaya with kohlrabi or even mangoes or apples.

Ingredients for 2–3 servings of Som Tam Thai (Papaya Salad)

With a little practice, preparing Som Tam takes 20 minutes, with most of the time spent cutting the ingredients. With our delicious papaya salad sauce, you'll save a lot of work.

Just follow our cooking instructions.

*Snake beans can be eaten raw, but our green beans cannot. If you use regular beans instead of snake beans, please be sure to boil them beforehand!

Preparation of Thai Papaya Salad

1. Peel the green papaya and carrots, or kohlrabi. Remove the papaya seeds. Cut the papaya into fine strips. It's best to use a julienne peeler or grater.

2. Place the peeled garlic cloves and Thai chilies in a mortar. Pound them coarsely until lightly crushed.

3. Add the green beans and dried shrimp to the mortar and lightly pound them so the beans break open slightly and the shrimp are crushed.

4. Add the halved cherry tomatoes and roasted peanuts to the mortar. Gently pound them until the tomatoes are slightly crushed and release their juice.

5. Now add our papaya salad sauce and the lime wedges, and mix everything again in the mortar.

6. Finally, add the papaya (or kohlrabi) and carrot strips. Carefully mix them with the other ingredients until everything is well combined.

7. Taste the salad and adjust the seasoning as desired. If needed, add a little more of our sauce, or just fish sauce, sugar, or lime juice.

8. Arrange the papaya salad on a plate and garnish with extra peanuts or fresh herbs, if desired. Serve the salad immediately to keep it fresh and crispy.