Recipe: Green papaya and pineapple salad with shrimp

On honeymoon in Vietnam, the food was excellent throughout the trip. However, one dish was particularly memorable. It was a green papaya salad with pineapple at Orivy in Hoi An. Back home I recreated it for a lunch with colleagues, and people loved it. It is an even more tropical spin on a classic Thai spicy green papaya salad. In my book, it is a winner!
Related: Our north-south Vietnam itinerary * My Pinterest board on Vietnam
Green papaya and pineapple salad with shrimp
2017-07-03 15:49:32
Prep Time
30 min
Total Time
40 min
For the salad
- 1 green (unripe) papaya
- 1 pineapple
- 2 small carrots
- 6 cherry tomatoes
- 1/2 a pound of peeled, deveined shrimp
- a handful of cilantro
- a handful of mint
- a small hand of unsalted roasted peanuts
- a tablespoon of sesame oil
- salt and pepper
For the dressing
- 2 limes
- 2 tablespoons of palm sugar
- 2 tablespoons of fish sauce
- 1 chili pepper
- 2 cloves of garlic
Optional
- Prawn crackers
Preparation
- Peel the papaya and remove the seeds. Grate with a box grater. Set aside.
- Peel and cut the pineapple in chunks, discarding the core. Set aside.*
- Halve the cherry tomatoes.
- Peel the carrots and spiralize or julienne them.
- Crush the peanuts with a pestle and mortar.
- Finely chop the garlic.
- Chop the chili pepper. Option: to make it spicier, keep the seeds; to keep it milder, discard the seeds.
- Chop the cilantro and mint finely.
For the dressing
- Mix the juice of the limes, the palm sugar, the fish sauce, the chili and the garlic in a bowl.
- Taste to check if the balance is okay. If not, add some more sugar or fish sauce to taste.
Assembling the salad
- Put the papaya, pineapple and cherry tomatoes in a bowl.
- Fry the shrimp in a few minutes in the sesame oil until pink. Season with salt and pepper. Before adding to the bowl, let the shrimp dry on a sheet of paper.
- Add the dressing to the bowl and mix everything together.
- Top with the peanuts, mint and cilantro.
- Optional: serve with prawn crackers.
Notes
- * If you do this far ahead of serving, drizzle some lemon juice on the pineapple to avoid discoloration.
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