Do you get pomelos in your country? This large citrus is super lovely and one of my favorite fruits. When it's in season, I like to stock up on a few, then peel and store in the fridge. Let me tell you this, there's nothing quite like cool pomelo popping in your mouth in the weather that's forever hot. You could easily finish an entire pomelo and then die and go to pomelo heaven before you know it.
Yeah, it's really that good.
And do you know what's better than pomelo? (Hint: Title of the post) The Thai pomelo salad or yum-som-o, of course! This salad is super yummy and healthy. It's got a couple of ingredients that bring their own unique flavors and textures to it. I particularly like pomelo, deep fried shallots and kaffir lime leaves together. You get some popping from the pomelo, a nice crunch from the deep fried shallots, and then a fragrance explosion from the kaffir lime leaves. People, this salad is bomb! Every bite is a little escape from reality!
Making Thai pomelo salad is pretty easy. I won't lie there are quite a few steps if you really want to make it from scratch. Having said that, you can definitely leave out some steps by, for example, using a pack of ready-to-eat pomelo and ready-made deep fried shallots. On busy days, you can also grab the easiest source of protein available to you to top it with.
This pomelo salad recipe is so worth making because it's fantastic! Another reason (for me) is that it's not something you can get from any typical Thai food carts or stalls even in Thailand because it's not street food. You'll most likely find it in a fancy-ish Thai restaurant here.
I should also mention that you need to add toasted coconut flakes and dried shrimp to achieve the traditional version of this Thai pomelo salad (about 1½ tablespoons of each for this recipe). But since I couldn't get the coconut and am not a fan of dried shrimp in salads, I omitted both. (Don't worry, the salad will still be amazing if you don't have those.)
On to the protein - many Thais like to use boiled shrimp or boiled pork, but I prefer baked pork because it gives so much more flavor. Although it does take a bit of time, I highly recommend baked or grilled pork with this salad. Just remember to do this the first thing and you can do other things while your meat is being cooked. In fact, you can even make a large batch of baked pork to use with other dishes or simply enjoy with rice as well. That way, you won't feel it takes too much time. 🙂
Last but not least, try this salad cold (just heat the pork) and you'll thank me later!
📖 Recipe
Thai Pomelo Salad with Baked Pork Recipe
Ingredients
For the Baked Pork
- 165 grams pork
- ½ teaspoon black soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon ground white pepper
For the Salad
- 4 cups pomelo
- 1 cup yardlong beans cut diagonally and blanched
- 5 Thai bird's eye chilis cut into thin rounds
- 8 kaffir lime leaves julienned hair thin
- 3 tablespoons deep fried shallots you can make this yourself or buy the ready-made version
For the Dressing
- ½ tablespoon sugar
- 2 tablespoons lime juice
- ½ tablespoon fish sauce
- 1 tablespoon Thai chili paste
- ½ teaspoon Thai chili flakes
Instructions
- Marinate the pork with black soy sauce, soy sauce and ground white pepper for 10 minutes. Then, bake at 180 °C for 20 minutes.
- Start making the dressing by dissolving sugar in lime juice. Once the sugar is fully dissolved, add fish sauce, Thai chili paste and Thai chili flakes and mix.
- When the pork is done, slice it into Thin pieces.
- Place all the ingredients in a salad bowl, pour the dressing in and mix thoroughly.
Notes
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