Green Papaya Salad

GREEN PAPAYA SALAD

One of my favorite appetizers to order at Thai restaurants is papaya salad. However, I can’t have any when I’m on any type of sugar-free challenge because there’s a ton of sugar in the sauce. So here’s a paleo sugar-free version!

*Note: there are different versions of papaya salad (Vietnamese, Thai, Laos, probably more..) This is more like the Thai version.

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups shredded green papaya (NOT ripe – this sht is hard)
4 cloves garlic, cut into 4-5 pieces per clove
1 Thai green chili, sliced into approx 8 pieces (comes out mild+ish)
1 medium tomato, chopped
juice of 3/4 of a lemon
2 tbs sugar-free fish sauce (I use Red Boat fish sauce – you can find on Amazon or some Asian supermarkets)
6-7 cashews, crushed
6 long green beans, chopped into 1 inch pieces

SPECIAL TOOLS:

garlic crusher – to crush yo garlic
julienne peeler – to shred yo green papaya

DIRECTIONS:

shred about 2 cups worth of papaya
place shredded papaya into bowl of cool water (supposed to help keep the papaya crisp)
take a couple pieces of garlic & a couple pieces of chili (however much will fit) & place them into your garlic crusher
in a new small bowl, squeeze/crush the garlic & chili until most of it is squished
scrape out the remaining pulpy stuffs and add that to your bowl too
repeat for all of your garlic/chili
drain your papaya
in a new large bowl, combine papaya, crushed garlic & chili
toss thoroughly with hands, squeezing the garlic & chili into the papaya
add long green beans, fish sauce & lemon juice
toss thoroughly again
add chopped tomatoes
lightly mix
transfer to a more presentable & instagrammable bowl/plate
sprinkle crushed cashews on top
INSTAGRAM! #getinmahbellay

I also had some catfish topped with sauteed shallots, garlic and cilantro with sauteed spinach, tomatoes and enoki mushrooms.

HURLWON

It’s been one year since I rescued my bebs Hurley. He was about 3 when I rescued him on June 15th, 2013 so we celebrated his 4th birthday this past week. This is a big deal ok?! He only gets so many of these so I want to make sure he feels all the love!

Needless to say, I spoiled his fat ass rotten :)