Once you make this thum mak hoong papaya salad recipe from Laos, you will never go back to any other salad. It is bursting with funky, dark, and intense flavors perfect with freshly steamed sticky rice. Feel free to adjust the flavors if you like it more sweet, sour, or salty!
Thum Mak Hoong | Papaya Salad | ຕຳຫມາກຫຸ່ງ
Once you make this thum mak hoong papaya salad recipe from Laos, you will never go back to any other salad. It is bursting with funky, dark, and intense flavors perfect with freshly steamed sticky rice. Feel free to adjust the flavors if you like it more sweet, sour, or salty!
Servings: 2 people
Equipment
- mortar and pestle
Ingredients
- Pinch of salt
- 1 Garlic
- 3 fresh bird eye chili
- 3 dried bird eye chili
- 1 tsp shrimp paste
- 1 tsp crab paste
- 4 tbsp Luang Prabang padaek
- 2 tsp fish sauce
- 2 tbsp tamarind paste
- 4 tsp sugar
- 2 tbsp salted crab sauce
- 15 cherry tomato
- 1/2 whole lime
- 3 cups shredded papaya
Instructions
- Prepare the papaya: peel, wash, fuk, and set aside.
- In a mortar and pestle, add pinch of salt, garlic, and peppers, then smash.
- Add the shrimp paste and crab paste
- then mix together
- Add the padaek, fish sauce, tamarind, sugar, crab sauce and mix.
- Slice tomatoes in half and gently smash into sauce and add lime and mix.
- Shred papaya and add to the mortar and smash.
Notes
If you can’t source homemade padaek unfiltered fish sauce, I recommend getting store bought padaek from a Southeast Asian grocery store. Try the Pantai brand.
Sabaidee penong hi Fam! I am Saeng and I am a Los Angeles personal chef and cooking instructor. I love creating food media revolving around Lao recipes. I promote and advocate for all things Lao food. Thanks for visiting!
