A simple Thai seafood salad with noodles. Delicious Thai flavours, with perfectly cooked seafood, fresh crisp salad and noodles. We love the classic balanced flavours that Thai food is known for, sweet, sour, spice and salty. This recipe uses our Nahm jim Thai dressing which is simple but delicious.
This beautiful dish is also quick to whip up, so let's get cooking!
Jump to:
If you love Thai flavours, it's a great cuisine to get confident cooking at home and this is a simple recipe to get you started. Our number one top tip for cooking Thai food is to taste, taste, taste. Creating delicious Thai food is all about balancing flavour. Which you need to create and develop from the start, so get used to tasting often and adjust as you go. Follow our recipe for a delicious guide to recreating this dish.
Ingredients
What Seafood to use -
- Squid tubes - fresh or frozen
- Prawns (shrimp) - heads removed, de-veined.
We love fish and seafood, as ever we recommend you getting to know your local fish monger. Use what's available and most sustainable in your region or select sustainable frozen seafood from a quality supplier. Mussels and scallops will work great in this recipe as well.
For the Nahm jim dressing / Thai salad dressing
- Garlic
- Red chilli's - we recommend one and a half with seeds removed but you can adjust to taste.
- Coriander stalks - these can be roughly chopped, keep the leaves to add to the salad.
- 2 lemons or 3 limes, juice only
- Palm sugar - a great sugar alternative as it contains less glucose and has a lower glycemic index than standard sugar.
- Fish sauce - a fermented fish sauce, popular in Sough East Asia. The liquid has a strong amora but brings delicious balance to the dish.
For the salad
- Mung beans / bean sprouts.
- Cucumber.
- Cherry tomatoes - small and sweet are best but switch with whatever tomatoes are available to you.
- Red chilli- adjust to your taste.
- Red onion - you could switch with spring onions/ scallions.
- Fresh mint and coriander leaves.
- Vermicelli noodles or glass/ rice noodles
Toppings these are optional but we love to sprinkle the finished dish with roasted peanuts and fried shallots for additional layers of flavour and crunch. Yum!
You might also love...
How to make a Thai salad dressing
Authentic Thai food is all about the balance of sweet, sour, spice and salt. Nahm jim dressing is classic Thai and yet simple to make at home. We love to use our pestle and mortar to pound and mix the ingredients together but a mini chopper would work well too. In our recipe we start by creating a paste, pounding the garlic, chilli and coriander together. Then pound in the palm sugar and mix in the lemon / lime juice. Lastly, mix in the fish sauce a little at a time and taste as you go. Fish sauce can be overpowering, so go slowly and adjust to your taste.
3 Steps to creating your Thai salad.
- Create your Thai salad dressing.
- Prepare and cook your seafood.
- Prepare your salad ingredients, assemble all the components and enjoy!
To prepare ahead.
Some elements of this dish can be prepped ahead of time. The dressing can be made and stored in a sealed jar in the fridge, this will stay fresh for several days and is a great on the go dressing. The salad ingredients can all be chopped and stored separately in the fridge, they will stay fresh and crisp for several hours. To serve, simply cook the seafood, prepare the noodles and assemble, for a quick fresh salad!
Our Thai seafood salad recipe is a great Thai dish to recreate at home. Whether you are cooking for two or entertaining friends this is a great fresh recipe to serve, let us show you how.
Did you try this dish? Please leave a rating and review below. And if you have any questions about the recipe, you can ask us in the comment section below too.
Happy cooking!
Originally posted 10th October 2021, updated 19th April 2022.
Recipe
Thai Seafood Salad
Ingredients
Nahm Jim Dressing
- 3 cloves Garlic Peeled
- 1 ½ Red Chilli De seeded, rough chopped
- ½ bunch Coriander stalks (Cilantro) Rough chopped keeping the leaves for the salad.
- 2 Lemons (or replace with 3 limes) Juice only
- 1 tablespoon Palm sugar
- 2 teaspoon Fish sauce
Seafood (See notes)
- 3 ea Squid tubes Fresh or frozen.
- 250 g Prawns tails (shrimp) Heads removed, de-veined.
Salad Ingredients
- 1 cup Mung beans (Bean sprouts)
- 1 stick Vermicelli noodles (rice or glass noodles) Soaked in boiling water
- ½ Cucumber Sliced
- 10 Cherry tomatoes Cut in half
- ¼ Red chilli Sliced
- ¼ Red onion Sliced
- Bunch of fresh mint leaves
- Bunch of coriander leaves (Cilantro)
Toppings (optional)
- Handful of roasted peanuts
- Sprinkle of fried shallots
Instructions
Nahm Jim Dressing (See notes)
- To make the dressing, grab your pestle and mortar and add the garlic, chilli, coriander stalks and pound to a paste.
- Add the sugar and pound into the mix. Then add the lemon juice and mix well.
- Use the fish sauce to season to taste. You want to find a balance of sweet, sour, spicy and salty. Add slowly and taste as you go.
Preparing and cooking the Seafood
- To prepare the prawns, make a slit along the back of the prawn cutting half way through the flesh, this will allow the prawns to open when cooking.
- To prepare the squid, take a sharp knife and cut the squid into rings about ½cm thick.
- Place a pot of water on the heat, season with a good pinch of salt.
- When the water comes to a boil, reduce to a simmer and add the prawns and squid. Simmer for about 2-3 minutes until the seafood is cooked, remove from the water and place into a bowl.
- Season the seafood with a couple of spoonfuls of the nahm Jim while it is warm.
Salad Time
- Grab a large bowl and add all the salad ingredients, add about 5 tablespoons of dressing to your salad and give it a good mix.
- Add the seafood and give it all a good mix.
- Assemble your salad into nice piles in your bowls, making sure you evenly distribute the ingredients. Drizzle over a couple more spoons of dressing and then sprinkle over your chopped peanuts and fried shallots.
- Enjoy the fresh flavours and be transpoted to Thailand with this amazing salad.
Anita says
This is such a delightfully fresh and light salad. It's going to be a favorite in summer months.
Andrea says
I love the squid and shrimp in a salad. The dressing is delicious! Thank you.
Dana says
This is so so refreshing and, quite frankly, addicting! Can't get enough of that Nahm Jim dressing!
Sharon says
Yum! This recipe was delicious, especially the tasty dressing. We will be having this all lsummer. Thanks!