This spicy, crunchy and super fresh Thai long bean salad recipe is the ideal choice for anyone who’s looking to have a quick and healthy meal! The delicious and authentic Thai flavors in this lovely dish are coming from traditional ingredients like fish sauce, palm sugar and tamarind paste.

Vegetarian Thai long bean salad

Vegetarians and vegans will love this colorful spicy salad, it’s easy to adjust into a vegan salad, and the flavors remain delicious.

In the ingredients list, you’ll find fish sauce and fermented fish sauce. Sadly, there is no vegetarian substitute for fermented fish sauce. But you can go ahead and replace the fish sauce for vegan fish sauce.

I don’t recommend adding or removing any vegetables, since this is exactly how you’d get a Thai long bean salad served in a Thai restaurant or at a street food market!

Easy salad recipe

Crispy beans and fresh vegetables bathing in a tasty salad dressing of spicy, salty, sweet and sour. This is definitely one of my favorite easy Thai salad recipes.

It’s prepped and pounded in just 10 minutes!

And the preparation of the ingredients is nothing more than simply cutting a few vegetables.

After that, you’ll need a mortar and pestle to pound and mix everything together.

Ingredients

All ingredients can be found in an Asian supermarket or at Asian markets.

• Long beans – Long beans are the main ingredient in this dish, they are also known as Yardlong beans. Look for fresh beans, they have a crunchy bite.
  
• Small red tomatoes – Substitutable for a regular sized tomato.
  
• Lime – Adding more fresh lime juice will make the dish more sour, but you don’t want the salad to become too sour.
  
• Palm sugar – Increasing the amount of palm sugar will increase the sweetness.
  
• Fermented fish sauce – This fermented sauce has a salty taste and a strong smell. It’s made of fish or krill which are coated in salt, and then fermented for up to 2 years. Don’t worry if you haven’t tried this before, the flavor is just very subtly present.
  
• Tamarind sauce – Increasing the amount of tamarind sauce increases the sour flavor.
  
• Fish sauce – Adds a salty taste to the salad.
  
• Dried peppers – The amount of dried chili peppers I used will make this salad EXTREMELY spicy. If your spice-level isn’t high, then I suggest using 0-2 dried chili peppers.
  
• Garlic

Short recipe video

Step-by-step instructions

Recipe notes

• Dried chilies tend to be spicier than their fresh counterparts, adjust the amount of chilies to your own spice level.
• After making this Thai salad, have a taste to check if the flavors suit your taste buds. Sweeter – add more palm sugar. Saltier – add more fish sauce. More sour – add more fresh lime juice.

How to serve

A spicy Thai salad is often served with other side-dishes, it basically goes with anything.

But it pairs best with some grilled meat. In Isan, the northeast of Thailand, people have this combination on a regular basis. A spicy meal with some grilled meat is what we love over here. I’ve been eating different kinds of Thai salads with grilled meat since I was a kid!

As a light lunch or main dish, combine it with rice and a bunch of fresh vegetables, that’s the traditional Thai way. In Isan, we substitute the white jasmine rice for sticky rice.

How to store

After serving, this salad can be kept at room temperature for several hours. Any longer than that, and the beans will become soggy from absorbing too much sauce. The crunch will be gone, and the flavors simply won’t be as good anymore.

Frequently asked questions (FAQ’s)

More Thai salads that you’ll love

All packed with fresh and healthy vegetables, I’m sure you’ll find one that perfectly suits you.

• Tam sua (papaya – rice vermicelli – authentic Thai flavored)
• Som tam Thai (the basic green papaya salad)
• Spicy Thai chicken salad (unique – colorful – honey flavored)

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Print Recipe

Thai Long Bean Salad Recipe

Author: Praew Cooking Method: Mortar and Pestle Cuisine: Asian cuisines Courses: Dinner, Salad, Side Dish Recipe Keys: Egg Free Low Carb Low Fat Nut Free O One Pot Spicy

Difficulty: Beginner Prep Time 5 min Cook Time 5 min Total Time 10 mins

Servings: 2

Description

This easy and healthy Thai long bean salad is a recipe that uses authentic Thai ingredients, pounded up in only 10 minutes!

Ingredients

Servings

• 1 clove garlic
• 4 dried chili peppers
• 10 long beans
• 0.5 tablespoons palm sugar
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• 1 tablespoon fermented fish sauce
• 1 tablespoon tamarind paste
• 0.5 lime
• 2 small tomatoes

Instructions

1. Prepare the veggies. Cut long beans medium-sized, tomatoes in small pieces, and lime in half.

2. Crush garlic and dried chilies in a mortar and pestle.

3. Add long beans. Crush them until they burst open, this way they will better absorb the flavors coming from the other ingredients.

4. Mix in fish sauce, fermented fish sauce, tamarind paste and palm sugar. Pound until the palm sugar is fully dissolved.

   Tip: Use a spoon in one hand, and the mortar in the other.

5. Finally, squeeze in the lime juice and toss in the peel, along with the tomatoes. Gently mix one last time. Serve immediately.

Note

• Dried chilies tend to be spicier than their fresh counterparts, adjust the amount of chilies to your own spice level.
• After making this Thai salad, have a taste to check if the flavors suit your taste buds. Sweeter - add more palm sugar. Saltier - add more fish sauce. More sour - add more fresh lime juice.
• Serve as a side dish with other meals, or as a main dish with a portion of rice.
• This salad can be kept at room temperature for several hours. After a while, the salad will turn soggy and lose its flavor, so it's best eaten immediately.

Keywords: Thai long bean salad

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