Photo and Recipe by Nadia Tamby

Have you ever had the green papaya salad (Som Tum) at a Thai restaurant? It’s one of my favorite Thai dishes. I love the balance in Thai food and especially in the papaya salad-- it is sweet, sour, spicy, salty, and bitter. I took a cooking class at Thai Fresh once where the chef/restaurant owner described all of these quintessential Thai flavors and what ingredients contribute to each flavor category. Unfortunately, some Thai ingredients can be difficult to get a hold of unless you’ve done some planning or have a pretty well-stocked pantry. I recommend visiting an Asian market to buy fish sauce, tamarind and Thai chilies (which you can freeze). Luckily, most of the ingredients can be found at your local grocery store, though the quality and flavor of fish sauce likely will not compare to an authentic brand. One (major) ingredient of Som Tum is incredibly difficult to find – green papaya. When I was tasked with using a spaghetti squash for this week’s recipe, I knew I wanted to do a spin on a cold noodle salad, but spaghetti squash, despite its name, really doesn’t have the taste or texture of a noodle. Though, I’ll admit I’ve had some delicious Bolognese sauces on spaghetti squash and thoroughly enjoyed it. Its vegetal flavor and almost crunchy texture made me think of the shredded green papaya in Som Tum – without having to do the work of shredding an entire green papaya! I add a little more tamarind and lime juice in this recipe than I normally would since the spaghetti squash lacks the tartness that green papaya naturally has. I also added some cucumber for a little crunch and color rather than the traditional few smashed green beans.



Ingredients:

• 1 approximately 2 lb spaghetti squash
• 1 cucumber
• A handful of cherry tomatoes
• 3-4 tablespoons fish sauce
• 1 tablespoon of palm sugar (or honey or brown sugar)
• 1 teaspoon tamarind concentrate (optional)
• Juice of 2 limes
• 1 thinly sliced Thai green chili (sub serrano pepper if you can’t find Thai chilies)
• 1 garlic clove, grated or very finely chopped
• Fresh herbs such as mint, basil (Thai if you can find it), or cilantro (or a combination)

Instructions:

Set your oven to 400F and line a large baking sheet with foil (this helps with clean up). Cut your spaghetti squash in half lengthwise (be careful!) and scoop out the seeds with a spoon, then drizzle some neutral flavored oil on the cut side of the squash and on your baking sheet.

Arrange the squash halves in cut-side down on the baking sheet, and bake for about 45 minutes until the flesh is soft (it may be slightly caramelized in places and maybe browned on top). Once your squash is cooked, turn the halves over and let them cool off. When they are cool enough to handle, use a fork to scrape out the flesh and refrigerate it. This step can be done up to a couple days in advance.

While your squash is in the oven, make the sauce:

Combine the fish sauce, tamarind paste (if using), lime juice, garlic, palm sugar and thai chili in a bowl and whisk to dissolve the tamarind paste and the palm sugar. Taste and adjust to your liking.

Partially peel the cucumber (I peel in alternating strips to reduce some of the bitterness from the peel) and cut out some of the seeds if you prefer, then cut into half moons. Slice the cherry tomatoes in half.

Toss the cooled spaghetti squash in the sauce and top with sliced cucumber, tomatoes, and fresh herbs. I like to serve this with a side of fish sauce with a few slices of Thai chili in it, so my guests can adjust the saltiness/spiciness to their liking.