Papaya Salad

I often see green papayas in the fruit and veg shop and think one day I should try some. When I was a kid, I used to visit family friends and grandma there used to make papaya salad…… I dimly remember. However, I am not sure how exactly she made it. I have friends who make it and also seen some recipes but really needed to get over the inertia and buy some. One day while chatting to a friend online we got to talking about what was cooked for dinner and papaya salad was one of the dishes. I got a quick rundown on the ingredients and the method. Of course, not having written in down I had to rely on memory and these days it is not as good as it used to be. Did another recon of the food websites and got a better idea of what basics were and created my own from the ingredients that I had at home. Also, I cannot use the soy sauce that was identified in some recipes as I am allergic to it. Neither do I use palm sugar or fish sauce hence the adaptation of dressing ingredients. I must say it turned out nice, tangy and crunchy with a hint of heat.

Ingredients

• 1 cup of shredded green papaya
• 1 medium carrot shredded
• 1 medium onion finely sliced
• ¼ cup finely sliced long beans
• 1 ripe tomato (I used the roma one) again finely sliced
• 1 table spoon of roughly chopped fresh coriander leaves
• Salt to taste
• Pepper to taste
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar (you can use honey as well. I tried using that as well once)
• 2 – 3 tablespoons of lemon juice. (again, I tend to taste and see if it is right as people can tolerate different levels of sourness.)

Method

• Shred and slice all the vegetables and put in a bowl.
• Put the sugar, lemon juice, salt and pepper in a small jar and shake to mix well and dissolve the sugar completely.
• Then pour the dressing over the papaya, carrots, onions and tomato.
• Stir well and garnish with the coriander.

When served immediately the salad is nice and crunchy and dressing light on it. You can keep it for a few hours in the fridge and the dressing has a pickling effect and acquires a different dimension. I had some left over and sat it in the fridge for later and found this delightful change.