Green Pawpaw Salad

This green pawpaw salad is light and refreshing but layered and complex, bursting with tart, spicy, citrusy flavors with a hint of sweet.

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Prep Time: 40

Course: Salad, Side Dish

Cuisine: Caribbean, Thai, Tobago, Trinidad

Keyword: vegan, vegetarian

Author: baidawi

Ingredients

1 green pawpaw shredded
2 chilies or scotch bonnet pepper
5 cloves garlic
3 " piece galangal or 1" ginger
1 bundle chives finely chopped
1 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp tamarind paste
1 tsp jaggery or cane sugar regular sugar or honey can work as well
2 tbsp lime juice
salt to taste

Instructions

Shredding & Prepping The Pawpaw

Use a sharp knife to chop the pawpaw along the surface while turning it in your hand. Put the pawpaw to stand straight and run the knife along the face of the pawpaw to shred. Repeat these steps until all the pawpaw is shredded. Once the all the pawpaw has been shredded, shock it in an ice bath to keep it fresh and crisp!
Shock shredded pawpaw in an ice bath
Drain water from the pawpaw

Salad Prep

Cut chilis into small pieces
Cut galangal into small pieces.
Cut garlic into small pieces
Add garlic, galangal, pepper, jaggery and salt into a mortar and pestle then grind into a paste.
Add lime juice
Pound until a smooth paste is formed
Add paste to shredded pawpaw.
Use hands to squeeze paste and shredded pawpaw.
Finish with fresh chives.

Notes

Shredding & Prepping The Pawpaw

Use a sharp knife to chop the pawpaw along the surface while turning it in your hand. Put the pawpaw to stand straight and run the knife along the face of the pawpaw to shred. Repeat these steps until all the pawpaw is shredded. Once the all the pawpaw has been shredded, shock it in an ice bath to keep it fresh and crisp!

Prepping The Other Ingredients

You can find galangal at the namdevco farmers' market in the Queen's Park Savannah. Most people describe the taste as a very mild version to ginger but to me it tastes like a green mango.

Add garlic, galangal, pepper, jaggery and salt into a mortar and pestle then grind into a paste.

Use hands to squeeze paste and shredded pawpaw.

This salad is light and refreshing but layered with flavors. You get the tart flavor from the galangal and tamarind paste. Citrus from the lime juice. Spicy kick from the pepper and the sweetness from the jaggery ties it all together. I had this in my fridge for a week and ate it as a side with every meal. My first meal though, was enjoying it as a topping for a fried pork taco.

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