Thai Green Papaya Salad (Tam Som)

This spicy salad combines the five main tastes of Thai cuisine. Sour lime, hot chillies, savoury fish sauce, salt and sweetness. It is of Lao origin and is one of their traditional staple dishes.  Its made with green unripe papaya and is incredibly fresh in taste. Served simply with grilled chicken and rice its unique and delicious.

I used to struggle buying green papayas as all the shops seemed to just sell them ripe (yellow) which you can't use for this dish but it seems the green papayas are everywhere now. And upon looking, just in my local high street in London - they were everywhere!

But if you can't find any - you can substitute the papaya with a number of ingredients from turnip to mooli to unripe mango.

The first thing you need is a pestle and mortar. Pop in one garlic clove and a chopped thai red chilli (seeds removed). Crush to a pulp with a 1/4 tsp. salt. Add a handful of chopped green beans (maybe 8) and pound a little more. Then add 4-5 cherry tomatoes, quartered and pound again. It should look like this:

Then add 1 tablespoon of palm sugar, 1 tablespoon of fish sauce and the juice of one lime. Mix thoroughly and put into a serving bowl.

Then you need to cut one carrot and one papaya into thin strips. For the papaya, I use a vegetable peeler and firstly peel the fruit - then keep peeling the flesh in strips and the, slice into julienne strips.  Add the carrot and papaya to the tomato and bean mix and stir well.

Serve on some salad leaves and top with chopped peanuts, if liked.