Bangkok Eats: How to Make An Even Healthier Som Tam

I fell in love with Som Tam on Kauai, one of the greenest of the Hawaiian islands, many miles of ocean and years away from my trip to Thailand.  It was everything I loved about what well-prepared food can be; bold, exotic, exciting, satisfying, and yet still good for me.  I'm not alone in my love affair with Som Tam.  This popular Thai dish is served throughout many parts of Asia and prepared a myriad of ways all over the world.  

This recipe focuses on replicating the street food style of Bangkok while keeping this dish in the realm of what most refer to as "clean eating," i.e., avoiding any processed ingredients.  Although the idea of "don't eat crap that was made instead of grown/killed" has been around since forever (see: cavemen), this idea crops up in new fad diets from time to time refurbished with some catchy new spin ("paleo" is one of them).  So if you must call this "paleo" or whatever new verbiage the diet world has bestowed upon "eating healthy" before you can eat it, call it whatever you wish.

But, Lisa!  Isn't this already devoid of processed ingredients?!?  True.  Mostly.  Well, let's put it this way, I want to share how to make a version for yourself that is as nutritionally sound as possible.  So I'm going to be picky, yes very picky, about the dietetic value of anything I'm about to make for myself at home.

Som Tam (ส้มตำ) is a spicy green papaya salad that balances the essential flavors of Thai cooking: sour, sweet, salty, and bitter.  Typically, most versions of the dish contain shredded papaya, lime, tomatoes, dried shrimp, fish sauce, peanuts, green beans, and palm sugar.  For a detailed look into one semi-traditionalist version of the recipe, check out She Simmers.  

Let's get started.

Recipe Makes: 1 serving

INGREDIENTS

• 6oz of a young green papaya (firm, not quite ripe), shredded (can be done with a food processor or by hand with a mandolin)
• About 1/2 a carrot
• The juice of 1 lime
• 1 tablespoon of peanuts
• 6 cherry tomatoes
• 6 whole shrimp, grilled with cooking spray / low or no oil
• 1/3 cup long green beans
• 1 Thai chili, to taste
• Fish sauce, to taste
• One garlic clove, minced
• 1 tbs of Stevia or any other no-calorie sweetener, optional and to taste

PREPARATION

• Prepare all of the ingredients as listed above: 
• shred the papaya and carrot, 
• juice the lime, 
• halve the cherry tomatoes, 
• cook the shrimp however you like them, but the dish is best if the shrimp are cold as well (optional - grill them in any sort of lime marinade to add to the flavor, or just grill them plain with a bit of salt and pepper to keep it simple),
• Cut the green beans into bite-size bits and lightly crush them so they are just split open,
• Mince the garlic and mince the Thai chili; add both to the fish sauce, lime juice, and whatever sweetener (or lack thereof) you've chosen,
• Put all of it together in a bowl and voila!  You've got yourself an all-natural meal packed full of protein and nutrients.

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 378 g

Amount Per Serving

Calories  299 Calories from Fat  64

% Daily Value*

Total Fat  7.1g 11%

Saturated Fat  1.4g 7%

Trans Fat  0.0g

Cholesterol  278mg 93%

Sodium  352mg 15%

Total Carbohydrates  25.7g 9%

Dietary Fiber  5.9g 24%

Sugars  12.4g

Protein  34.4g

Vitamin A 152% • Vitamin C 188% Calcium 19% • Iron 8%

Nutrition Grade A

* Based on a 2000 calorie diet

Nutritional Analysis

Good points

• High in phosphorus
• Very high in vitamin A
• High in vitamin B12
• Very high in vitamin C

*Note: the shrimp is responsible for the cholesterol level in this recipe.  If this is an issue for you, sub in some lightly grilled tofu to turn this into a vegetarian/low cholesterol version.  Also consider subbing in a lower-cholesterol fish like Halibut, Mackerel, or even sardines.