This guilt free vibrant Thai green pawpaw salad recipe works beautifully with my BBQ Massaman Curry Lamb Shanks. It pairs just as well with almost any protein, BBQ prawns, grilled steak, steamed fish, chicken skewers and the like.   

Don’t be put off if green pawpaw is unavailable, swap in shredded green mango, pomelo segments, or even grated granny smith apples.   

Make sure you check out my ‘make ahead salad’ layering technique. This Thai salad can be made a day ahead, be held overnight in the fridge, and still be super fresh to serve the next day.   

What’s in a word?

What’s a pawpaw you ask? That’s a good question and it can be quite confusing. And even spelling it can lead to a debate, ‘pawpaw,’ ‘paw paw,’ or ‘papaw.’ I’m sticking with pawpaw.   

In Australia, we generally refer to the yellow variety of papaya carica as ‘Yellow Pawpaw’ and the red variety as ‘Red Papaya.’ So, for my North American friends, yes a pawpaw is the same thing as a papaya.   

Ingredients

The recipe is portioned for six and specifies half a pawpaw. If you are making this Thai green pawpaw salad for a large group, you can double the recipe and use a whole pawpaw. Most independent green grocers stock green pawpaws but you will be sure to find them at an Asian grocer of fruit market.  You’ll find they’re happy to cut one in half for you.   

You don’t want the pawpaw to be already ripening. It should be very firm and the skin completely green.   

This is not a recipe where I usually measure the ingredients and it certainly isn’t crucial to getting a beautiful final salad. For the coriander and mint, the measurements are a guide only. Also, bunches of herbs vary in size depending on the shop. To serve six you want to end up with 2-3 cups of loosely packed coriander and about 1-2 cups of mint.   

Safety first!

I could name a couple million reasons why I’m called the ‘worst case scenario’ woman by those who claim to love me. And, on The Great Australian Bake Off Season 6, I was happy to own the ‘safety first’ mantle, really!   

So, yes, that is a cut resistant butcher’s glove with the mandolin! I love my mandolin and use it all the time but never without wearing a cut resistant glove. You can source them online, at safety gear shops, and at specialty shops that sell kitchen knives.   

A mandolin is not essential, you can use a knife and just get the slices as thin as possible. 

Raw shallots can have a pretty strong flavour, so you want them sliced as thin as possible. These are about 3mm thick. Make sure you read the notes, to see how you can assemble your salad so the shallots mellow out by pickling in the dressing.   

Pawpaw preparation

I use a dessert spoon to scoop out the seeds and a good sharp vegetable peeler to remove the skin of the pawpaw. The shredding is done in a food processor fitted with a medium grate blade. I cut the pawpaw up into chunks that will easily fit in the processor feeder tube. 

But you don’t need a food processor to shred the pawpaw. A box or handheld grater is fine. Use a medium sized grater and keep the pawpaw in larger pieces for ease of handling.

Chilli two ways

The recipe calls for three long red chillies.   

Remember the chilli’s heat is in the membrane and seeds. So whether you trim off the membrane and remove the seeds is entirely up to you. I feel that you are less likely to deter those who are not very heat tolerant if you remove the membrane and seeds. 

Slice two of the chillies anto 5mm rounds for the topping. Getting the seeds and membrane out of a whole chilli is a bit of a challenge. I cut the end off the chilli and use a metal skewer to essentially ‘drill’ out the membrane and seeds. I alternate between drilling & slicing.    

Slice the other chilli in half lengthwise and scrape the seeds & membrane out. Finely chop and set aside to add to the salad.   

Coriander & Mint ‘salad greens’

Fresh coriander and mint take the place of lettuce leaves in this Thai green pawpaw salad.   

Make sure you wash and dry your herbs well. I use a salad spinner but you can wash them in a bowl of cold water, shake them well, and roll them up in a clean tea towel. The herbs will wait happily in the fridge in the tea towel until you are ready for them.   

Coriander can be particularly gritty, so I soak coriander in cold water in the bowl of my salad spinner. Then I lift the herbs out of the water, leaving the grit behind. If you just pour off the water, the grit will end up sticking to the leaves again.   

It’s important to get rid of the main steams when picking the herb leaves for the salad. But you don’t have to be a perfectionist, unless of course, you are. It’s fine to have a few thin stems in the salad.

Salad toppings

I think the peanut, red chilli and fried shallot topping is almost the best part of this Thai salad recipe.   

While you can make your own fried shallots, I rarely do. Fired shallots, sometimes labelled ‘fried onions’ are readily available in the international aisles of your local grocery store.   

The topping stores well in the fridge for a week or two. If you’re making my BBQ massaman curry lamb shanks recipe at the same time, you’ll see that the same topping is used for both recipes. 

A match made in heaven!