Thai-style carrot and cucumber salad

This is my version of som tam - the deliciously spicy green papaya salad that originated in the North but is now served everywhere in Thailand. Jo and I have spent lots of time travelling in Thailand and everywhere we went we ate this. Sometimes with sticky rice and barbecued chicken (Jo’s favourite ever meal) and sometimes by itself as a snack - it’s sharp and refreshing which is perfect in the tropical climate.

It’s an inauthentic version using shredded carrots and cucumbers in place of the green papaya. It is hard to get hold of green papaya in Northern Ireland and, where possible, I prefer to use local ingredients to ones that have been imported from very far away. We made this version with carrots, cucumbers, green beans and tomatoes from our farm.

This is best made with shredded carrots and cucumber rather than grated, the texture is more pleasing - crunchy rather than slightly soggy. If you have lots of time and love chopping you can hand-cut the carrots and cucumber into thin strips. Or you might find your food processor has an attachment for cutting thin strips of vegetables or dust off that spiraliser at the back of the cupboard and use that. I use my mandolin which has a blade which cuts thin strips. At a push you can grate the veggies, but just use the largest side of the grater.

You can leave out the green beans and/or tomatoes if you don’t have them - we don’t eat green beans out of season because they are air-freigheted (too much carbon footprint) and you can also play around with the proportions of carrot and cucumber. I often make this just with shredded carrot in the Winter.

I freeze whole bird’s eye chillies for dressings and for cooking with, they work very well for this recipe as they are crushed. If you don’t have bird’s eye chillies you can use another type of chilli, but ideally one that is pretty spicy. If your chillies aren’t spicy enough you can add a pinch of chilli flakes to taste.

Serves 4

3 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
4 bird’s eye chillies (or more or less to taste), roughly chopped. I prefer red but green is also fine
2 tablespoons unsalted peanuts, roasted and peeled (some reserved to garnish)
400g carrot, shredded or roughly grated
1 cucumber, shredded or roughly grated
12 green beans, cut into 3cm lengths
10 cherry tomatoes, halved (keep a couple to garnish)
1-2 limes, juice only
2-3 tablespoons fish sauce
1-2 teaspoons granulated sugar
Coriander, to garnish (optional) 

It is best to make this salad by crushing all the ingredients together. In Thailand they do this in massive wooden mortar and pestles which are specifically used for making these types of salads. We do have a large mortar and pestle but it still isn’t’ big enough to make this salad, so I improvise with a heavy mixing bowl (as the mortar) and a wooden rolling pin (as the pestle). If you have a huge mortar and pestle then feel free to use that.

Put the garlic and chillies in the large mixing bowl and crush to a rough paste with the end of the rolling pin. Add about half the peanuts and crush again for about 30 seconds.

Now add the shredded carrot and cucumber and crush into the chilli and garlic, at the same time use a large spoon to lift everything up from the bottom of the bowl to make sure it is well mixed. Add the green beans and 8 cherry tomatoes and keep crushing and mixing.

Finally add the juice of one lime, two tablespoons fish sauce and a teaspoon granulated sugar. Crush and mix again until everything is coated in the dressing. Taste and add more lime juice, fish sauce and sugar to taste and to balance out the flavours. This is traditionally served very spicy, but the lime and sugar will help balance out the heat.

Pile in a serving bowl and garnish with the remaining cherry tomatoes and roasted peanuts and coriander if using. The delicious citrussy and spicy liquid at the bottom of the bowl after you have eaten the salad it perfect drizzled over jasmine or sticky rice.