Yum mamuang is a tangy and slightly sweet Thai salad made from unripe mangoes, peanuts, and lime juice. Serve it with some rice for a light meal or as a complement to a heavier meal.
Classic Thai food
When thinking about Thai cuisine, some “classic” dishes often come to mind. Along with stir-fried dishes like pad thai, and Thai-style coconut milk curries like massaman, there is one unique dish that stands out from the rest – the glorious Som Tam, a.k.a Papaya Salad.
Som tam is beloved by foreigners and Thais alike.
Unripe crunchy papaya, slightly sweet and tangy, pounded with chilies, peanuts, and other varying ingredients. Then it is dressed in lime juice, fish sauce, and palm sugar.
What’s there not to like?
Nevertheless, som tam is not one of a kind. In addition to many other similar dishes from Northeastern Thailand, many other regions in Thailand use unripe or semi-ripe fruit to create fresh and unique salads.
Thai Salads – Do They Exist?
Before we continue, it is important to note that in Thai cuisine, there isn’t such thing as a “salad”.
Nevertheless, Thai categorization of raw vegetable and fruit dishes, such as tam and yum dishes, would often adhere to the Western category of salads.
Yet, different from som tam, today’s dish is not a “tam” dish, but a “yum” dish. Despite using similar ingredients and dressing, their cooking methods differ. In the Thai language, “tam” means “to pound”, while “yum” means “to mix”.
Naturally, this affects the texture and flavor of each dish.
A postcard from Southern Thailand
I first encountered Yum Mamuang during my recent trip to Krabi, a port city in Southern Thailand. There, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to cook in a local Curry Rice shop, acquiring precious culinary knowledge of Southern Thai cuisine.
Despite what one might expect, Curry Rice shops don’t only serve curries to accompany rice. In a typical Khao Gaeng, they additionally prepare soups, stir-fries, grilled meat, and salads.
Indeed, among many other dishes that we cooked on that day, there was this Southern Thai delicacy of yum mamuang – a tangy and spicy salad of semi-ripe mangoes, peanuts, and fried anchovies.
I immediately fell in love with the sweet and savory contrast of the dish. The semi-ripe mangoes, tangy and slightly sweet, linked perfectly to the sourness of the lime juice and the hinted sweetness of the fried peanuts.
Additionally, the mangoes harmonically contrasted the savoriness of the fried anchovies and the heat of the chilis.
The ingredient that changed it all
The use of fried anchovies surprised me.
In most Thai salads, dried baby shrimp may be added for an extra umami kick – an intangible savoriness that makes you want to eat more and more.
The fried anchovies had a similar function, yet were more pronounced in flavor and texture.
Also known as ikan bilis in Malay, fried anchovies have traveled to Southern Thailand from its Malaysian neighbor, where this ingredient has been used for time immemorial.
Nasi lemak, for instance, is considered to be Malaysia’s national dish, and despite its many variations, the dish almost always incorporates fried anchovies and peanuts.
You can purchase dried anchovies online (affiliate link) or from your local Asian grocer.
Mangoes in Thai cuisine
Thai cuisine uses mangoes quite extensively, and they play a different role depending on their ripening stage.
In this case, the mangoes are still unripe, yet have already reached a certain stage, where they are slightly sweet.
One might identify this ripening stage by smelling a hint of the sweet odor from the green, seemingly unripe mango.
The dressing for this Thai mango salad
The dressing for this dish, made from fish sauce, lime juice, chilies, and palm sugar, can be made in advance.
You can also fry the anchovies and peanuts a while ahead, yet they would surely taste better if freshly fried.
After preparing the dressing and fried ingredients, one only has to mix (or “yum“) them with semi-ripe mangoes, carrots, long beans, and shallots, to create a fresh, unique, and addictive salad.
Yum mamuang is traditionally enjoyed with rice and is often served as a side dish to lighten up other heavier dishes that may be served, like son-in-law eggs.
I would like to finish with an important pro tip – after mixing all the ingredients together with the dressing, let the dish sit in the fridge for another 15 minutes or so. During that time, the vegetables and anchovies absorb the flavors of the sauce.
By doing this, you will make your yum mamuang more addictive than ever!
Yum Mamuang (Thai Mango Salad)
Yum mamuang is a tangy and slightly sweet Thai salad made from unripe mangoes, peanuts, and lime juice.
Ingredients
For the dressing
- 1-2 bird eye chilis (depending on your heat preference)
- 5 Tbsp fish sauce
- 5 Tbsp palm sugar, finely chopped (can substitute coconut sugar or brown sugar)
- 2-3 Tbsp lime juice (from about 1/2 lime)
For the salad
- Vegetable oil, for frying
- 1/2 c dried anchovies
- 1/4 c shelled peanuts
- 1 c unripe mango, julienned
- 1/3 c carrot, julienned
- 1/3 c long beans, thinly sliced (or thin green beans)
- 2 shallots, sliced
- Cilantro, to garnish
Instructions
- Mix all the dressing ingredients in a bowl or jar. Set aside.
- Heat vegetable oil in a frying pan over medium heat and shallow fry the dried anchovies and peanuts for 1-2 minutes, until fragrant. Set aside.
- In a salad bowl, add the mangoes, carrots, and long beans. Add the fried dried anchovies and peanuts. Mix well.
- Add the sauce and mix again.
- Transfer to a serving dish and garnish with cilantro. Enjoy!
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Nutrition Information:
Yield:
3Serving Size:
1/3 of recipeAmount Per Serving: Calories: 270
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