I miss and love good Thai food. I lived in Thailand for a year and grew to love the flavors and spices involved in making delicious Thai food.
One of my favorite dishes ever is “Som Tam“, which is green papaya salad. You take a unripe papaya, peel it, and then shred it. Add in some more veggies, shrimp, and special ingredients, and you have a very refreshing salad. I used to buy this salad off the street for less than $1! I loved my “Som Tam” Thai lady who thought it was funny to test my Thai language. The first time I ordered from her she asked me how I would like the salad…”spicy or a little spicy? ” she asked me in Thai. I responded to her in what I thought was proper tone (Thai has 5 tones) and said “no spice please.” I said the word spice with the wrong tone and it ended up coming out, “no sex please.”
She gave me the most memorable face, corrected me, and then we both roared with laughter. It was a joke from that day on that I don’t like no sex!
Anyways, I swapped out the papaya and am using shredded cucumber instead, which makes recipe Whole 30 and 21 Day Sugar Detox approved. Green beans are ok on Paleo even though they are technically a bean, because they are more of a pod than a bean!
Shrimp Thai Salad
1/2lb of cooked shrimp
2 cups of shredded cucumber or 2 cups of shredded green papaya
1 cup of very firm green beans (don’t overcook); cut in 1 inch pieces
1 cup of cherry tomatoes, cut in half
4 TB of sliced or mashed almonds
3 cloves of garlic, minced
juice of 2 limes
2 TB of fish sauce (or soy sauce)
handful of cilantro
1 TB apple cider vinegar or rice vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste
Optional: red chile pepper
Directions:
1. Lightly steam your green beans or eat them raw. Mine green beans were from the freezer so they were not too hard so I didn’t have to steam them. You want them to be crunchy.
2. Shred your cucumber and then place it in a colander to drain. Leave it to drain for like 15 minutes, then pat dry with a towel.
3. In a large bowl add your green beans, shrimp, cherry tomatoes, cilantro and chile pepper (if using).
4. Then add your wet ingredients: fish sauce, lime juice, vinegar, and garlic. Sprinkle on some salt and pepper.
5. Add cucumber to the bowl and mix. Taste and adjust seasonings.
6. Top with mashed or sliced almonds!
How many servings does this make? Looks so yummy!
About 4. Two LARGE servings. We usually add a side with it.
I thought this was a green papaya salad, but I don’t see the papaya anywhere….?
It says you can use either shredded cucumber or shredded green papaya.
Your “no spice” story is too funny!! I had the same exact thing happen in Mexico!!! Ordering street food, I said, “Nada caliente, por favor.” I meant, “Nothing spicy, please” but in fact, what I said was, “Nothing sexy, please”