Spicy Shrimp and Green Apple Salad Recipe

A quick to assemble salad with bold Thai flavors.

By
Leela Punyaratabandhu
Leela Punyaratabandhu
Leela Punyaratabanhu is a food writer, recipe developer, and award-winning author specializing in Thai cooking. She has written three cookbooks: Simple Thai Food, Flavors of the Southeast Asian Grill, and Bangkok, which won the 2018 Art of Eating Prize.
Learn about Serious Eats' Editorial Process
Updated April 18, 2024
An overhead view of spicy shrimp and green apple salad in a bowl.

Serious Eats / Leela Punyaratabandhu

Why It Works

  • Using the freshest and best ingredients you can find will yield the best tasting salad.
  • Crisp green apple, cut into matchsticks, is a readily available substitute for traditional green mangoes.

We've got lots of flavors and textures going on here as you can see. But that's exactly what some of us love so much about Thai-style salads. Thai cooks aren't shy about pairing fruits with meat, the sweet with the savory, or the smoky with the fresh.

There's not much to say about the making of this salad for it couldn't be any simpler to make. The only thing to emphasize is that the quality of each of its components is of utter importance. For some dishes, one can sometimes get away with ingredients that are not at their best. This dish is not one of them.

The ingredients for spicy shrimp green apple salad.

Serious Eats / Leela Punyaratabandhu

This means the shrimp should be perfectly poached to achieve the desirable "bouncy" texture, the apples (handy substitutes for the more traditional tart green mangoes) and tomatoes should be at their best (not soft or mealy), the lime (not lemon) juice should be freshly squeezed and not from a bottle, the mint leaves should be fresh and not dried, and the cashews should be fresh and not rancid.

These may seem like a bunch of unnecessary precautions, but experienced cooks, I'm sure, know what I'm talking about.

May 2012

Recipe Details

Spicy Shrimp and Green Apple Salad Recipe

Prep 30 mins
Cook 15 mins
Active 30 mins
Total 45 mins
Serves 4 servings

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 pounds large or jumbo shrimp (21-25 count), peeled and deveined
  • 2 quarts water
  • 2 tablespoons salt
  • 3 medium-sized on-the-vine tomatoes
  • 2 large shallots or 1/2 a large red onion
  • 2 large Granny Smith apples
  • Dried red pepper flakes, to taste
  • Fresh lime juice, to taste
  • Fish sauce, to taste
  • 1 1/2 cups plain roasted cashews, preferably unsalted
  • 1/3 cup mint leaves, torn into small pieces by hand

Directions

  1. Put water and salt in a large pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat so water is steaming but no longer boiling. If you have a thermometer, make sure water registers somewhere between 160 and 180 ̊ F (71 and 82 ̊ C) which is ideal for poaching shrimp. (For those needing help on the proper way to poach shrimp, see this video demo by Chef Michael Pardus of the Culinary Institute of America.)

  2. Poach shrimp until flesh just turns opaque. This should take no more than one minute; drain, place shrimp in a large mixing bowl, and set aside.

  3. Trim tops off tomatoes, and cut into 1/2-inch wedges; add to shrimp.

  4. Peel shallots (or red onion) and slice lengthwise very thinly and add to shrimp bowl.

  5. Core and halve apples, and slice lengthwise into 1/8-inch slices. Working with 4-5 slices at a time, arrange apple slices into neat stacks and cut into matchsticks, about 1/8 inch in width. Add apple matchsticks to shrimp bowl.

  6. Season to taste with lime juice, fish sauce, and dried red pepper flakes; toss. The exact amounts of these ingredients cannot be given, because it all depends on how tart or sweet the apples and tomatoes are as well as your heat tolerance. The overall flavor of the salad should be predominantly sour, then salty, with a tinge of sweetness from the fruits. Start with less lime juice and fish sauce than you think prudent as you can always add more. (It's good to have about 1/4 cup of fish sauce and 3-4 limes on hand just so you know you have enough ingredients to work with even though you may not need to use all of them. Also, take into consideration whether your cashews are salted or not. If they are, go easy on the fish sauce.)

  7. Add in cashews and mint leaves; toss salad again. Serve immediately as a stand-alone salad or an entrée with steamed rice.

Notes

Dried red pepper flakes are used here as a way of introducing at least one smoky/spicy element to the dish, but fresh chiles would work too. You can also grill the shrimp, as opposed to poaching them, just to get a nice smoky char in which case finely-chopped fresh Thai bird's eye chiles are recommended as a replacement for the dried red pepper.

Read More

More Serious Eats Recipes