Thai Green Mango Salad with Salty Tamarind Dressing
Combining exotic flavours in salty tamarind dressing served with prawns, crunchy green mango, grilled pineapple and cucumber, this Thai Green Mango Salad recipe is super refreshing. Great starter to get the taste buds moving.
Spray grill pan with olive oil and prepare for medium-high heat.
Place pineapple slices on pan and grill for 30-45 seconds on each side or until you get a good char.
Peel the mango and thinly slice white flesh lengthwise into bite size pieces until you reach the stone.
Wash and slice cucumber into 0.5cm thick slices.
De-shell cooked prawns (shrimp). Leave heads on.
Salad Dressing
Soak tamarind pulp in a little warm water until soft. Then strain it in a large bowl and remove the pips.
In the tamarind pulp, add shrimp paste and palm sugar and whisk well until you have a thick smooth consistency.
Add lime juice and peanut oil to thin the dressing. Mix well.
Add ¾ of the chopped chilli. Less if you don't want it so spicy.
Assembly
Layer the salad starting with grilled pineapple slices first, then next is cucumber slices and finally finish with the green mango slices.
Drizzle salty tamarind dressing over salad and sprinkle with 2 tbsp of crushed peanuts.
Place extra tamarind dressing in a bowl, add remaining ¼ chopped chilli and sprinkle remainder of crushed peanuts. Serve this bowl on the side for extra dipping sauce.
Notes
Substitute green mangoes with Granny Smith apple if not in season.
For convenience, you can purchase tamarind paste/puree in a jar at grocery stores. This saves from soaking the pulp. However, may need to adjust the quantity for taste.
Tamarind dressing can keep in the fridge airtight container for a few days.
You can substitute palm sugar with dark brown sugar.
If you prefer not to use fresh chilli, you can use 2 tsp crushed chilli paste such as sambal oelek.