Watermelon Salad With Fried Shallots and Fish Sauce
Published May 25, 2022
- Total Time
- 15 minutes
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 4medium garlic cloves
- 2 to 12fresh Thai bird’s-eye chiles (depending on how much heat you enjoy), stems trimmed (see Tip)
- 3tablespoons palm sugar (see Tip)
- ¼cup fish sauce
- 3tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
- ½cup homemade or store-bought fried shallots
- 3pounds seedless watermelon (about 1 small or ¼ large), rind removed, cut into 1-inch chunks
- ½small red onion, thinly sliced
- 1small cucumber, halved lengthwise and cut into ½-inch slices
- Large handful of roughly chopped mint leaves
- Large handful of roughly chopped cilantro leaves
- ½cup roughly crushed or chopped roasted peanuts
For the Dressing
For the Salad
Nutritional analysis per serving (4 servings)
303 calories; 10 grams fat; 1 gram saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 5 grams monounsaturated fat; 3 grams polyunsaturated fat; 51 grams carbohydrates; 5 grams dietary fiber; 36 grams sugars; 10 grams protein; 1434 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
- Step 1
Prepare the dressing: Combine garlic, chiles and sugar in the bowl of a large mortar and pestle. Pound into a fine paste. Add fish sauce and stir with the pestle until the sugar is fully dissolved. Add the lime juice and stir with the pestle to incorporate. Alternatively, you can combine the garlic, chiles, palm sugar (chop it into bits with a heavy knife or cleaver if it came in solid chunks), fish sauce and lime juice in a blender. Blend until the garlic and chiles are finely chopped, and stir until the sugar is dissolved.
- Step 2
Prepare the salad: If using homemade shallots, skip to Step 3. If using store-bought shallots, toast them dry in a large skillet over medium-low heat until deep caramel brown and aromatic, about 3 minutes. (Alternatively, you can toast the shallots on a sheet tray in an oven or toaster oven at 375 degrees until deep caramel brown, about 6 minutes). Season generously with salt and transfer to a bowl.
- Step 3
Combine watermelon, onion, cucumber, mint, cilantro, peanuts, half of the fried shallots and ¼ cup dressing in a large bowl. Toss to combine. Taste and add more dressing as desired. (Excess dressing can be reserved in a sealed container in the fridge for up to two weeks.) Transfer to a serving platter and sprinkle with remaining shallots. Serve.
- Thai bird’s-eye chiles are small, bright and very hot. If you can’t find them, you can use any hot chile available to you, though, if possible, lean toward brighter, fruitier chiles like habanero or Fresno over grassier chiles like jalapeño or serrano. You can find palm sugar in most well-stocked Asian supermarkets or online retailers. (Pucks, paste or granulated all work fine here.) If you can’t find it, you can use light brown sugar in its place. You can find Southeast Asian-style fried shallots in most well-stocked Asian supermarkets, or from online specialty grocers. They can also be made at home.
Private Notes
Comments
The dressing is a classic Vietnamese nuoc cham and should be adjusted while making since different limes have different levels of sour/acid and chilis vary in heat. The measurements given are estimates based on what will generally taste right. Taste once combined and if too sour, add water and a little palm sugar, if too sweet, add a little lime, if too salty, add water and balance with lime or sugar. Also, use a higher quality fish sauce, such as red boat (available on Amazon).
Ellen, most experts agree that grinding in a mortar and pestle does in fact 'make a difference', but that is down to taste. The idea that using a blender instead of a mortar leaves you with one less thing to wash is just bizarre, however. I mean, you do have to wash out your blender after you use it, right? I also think you'll find that washing out a mortar is much quicker and easier than washing out a blender.
While I love all of the ingredients separately, the dressing wasn't well balanced and was too salty. Next time I would use less fish sauce (2T) and more lime juice (4 T). I would also conserve any watermelon juice and add it to the dressing. I used 3 Thai chilies, which was more than enough heat. Much more than that and it would be inedible for most people. Also, skip the mortar and pestle and just put everything into the blender. It won’t make a difference and one less thing to wash.
Made this for friends last night and of course didn’t have any shallots fresh or fried so I just added extra peanuts and luckily no one knew how much better it could be and it was delicious.
This is absolutely amazing. I had a third helping. We cut back on the fish sauce (by half, substituting a little water) because we were using Red Boat rather than a lighter one, and it was amazing. Great quoc cham, great salad, and the herbs and fried shallots take it over the top.
I used half the amount of watermelon each of the three times I’ve made this, and all of (store bought) shallots on top. Two or three large chiles, not jalapeños but not sure what kind. It was a random bag. Everyone loves this!
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