Laos Papaya Salad

Sweet and spicy Lao papaya salad served in a bowl.

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Lao Papaya Salad is a unique sweet and spicy salad made with unripe papaya that is sure to bring an unforgettable flavor explosion to your meal as a side dish or the main course.

Course Salad, Side Dish

Cuisine Laotian

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 0

Servings

Calories 181kcal

Author Alexandria Drzazgowski

Equipment

Wooden mortar and pestle: I recommend a wooden mortar and pestle to achieve the best texture. A marble mortar and pestle may grind your ingredients too finely. I do not have a wooden mortar and pestle, so I used a marble one. With some caution, I was able to achieve the right result!
Vegetable Peeler or Sharp Knife

Ingredients

1 large unripe papaya 2 lb (you want the salad to be crunchy)
¼ tsp Salt
1 clove garlic
3 fresh chili peppers more or less depending on your spiciness preference
3 dried chili peppers
1 tsp shrimp paste
½ tsp crab paste
¼ cup Padaek
1 tbsp Fish Sauce can go up to 2 tbsp
1 tbsp granulated Sugar
2 tbsp Crab Sauce
1 cup cherry tomatoes halved
½ lime juiced
3 Asian eggplants

Instructions

Peel the skin from the unripe papaya and rinse off the sticky substance from the fruit.
Use the blade of your knife to (safely) whack your papaya lengthwise until there are a bunch of little cuts all over it. Then use your knife to cut the papaya shallowly, cutting off uneven shreds of the papaya fruit.
In a mortar and pestle, add ¼ tsp salt, 1 clove garlic, 3 fresh chili peppers, and 3 dried chili peppers. Smash the ingredients together until a paste is formed.
Add 1 tsp shrimp paste and ½ tsp crab paste into the mortar and mix again until combined.
Add the ¼ cup Padaek, 1 tbsp fish sauce, 1 tbsp granulated sugar, and 2 tbsp crab sauce. Mix until combined but do not mix too hard as you don’t want your crab pieces to get smushed.
Add the papaya pieces into a bowl, then drizzle your dressing over the top. Add in 1 cup cherry tomatoes and the lime juice of ½ a lime juiced.
Use a spoon and your pestle to mix the papaya with the juice. As you are mixing, use your pestle to press on the papaya a little bit, bruising it.
Serve and enjoy!

Notes

Recipe researched using Saeng Douangdara, Gigi’s Lao Kitchen, and Cooking with Nana

Unripe Papaya: See “What is a Green Papaya” section for tips on picking the best Papaya
Chili Peppers: Both fresh and dried. Feel free to use more or less to adjust the heat.
Shrimp Paste & Crab Paste: Find these in your Asian grocery store.
Padaek: Padaek is an authentic Lao ingredient. It’s a fermented fish sauce so it comes out thicker than fish sauce but with the same pungent smell and flavor. Padaek is often homemade but you can also find it on Amazon.
Granulated Sugar: Many recipes call for palm sugar or brown sugar as a substitute for white sugar
Crab Sauce: This is sometimes frozen with pieces of crab in the sauce.
Asian eggplants: These can be omitted if you can’t find them. Asian eggplants are small and circular, just a little bit larger than a golf ball.
Wear protective eyewear when smashing your chili peppers. A little chili juice in your eye or even under your fingernails can be painful.
This salad is meant to have a very fishy flavor to it. It smells and tastes like it’s fresh from the ocean. Some Padaek and crab sauce may even have pieces of fish or crab in it. You can adjust those ingredients slightly but be prepared that if you are not a fan of fish this salad may not be for you.
You can purchase a jar of Padaek or you can make Padaek at home.
The flavors in this salad can easily be adjusted with more or less chili, sugar or lime. Feel free to mess around with different ratios until you find what suits your preferences.
You want to crush your sauce ingredients without completely grinding them. They should come together in a rough sauce, not a smooth paste.
Give your papaya time to sit in the sauce before serving. Give it a good mix to allow all those flavors to mix in well–but try not to pound your papaya to the point where it loses its crunch.

Nutrition