A 30-minute recipe for Thai Larb Salad, a fresh and flavorful Thai salad loaded up with crunchy cucumber, radishes and fresh herbs, tossed in a tangy lime dressing! Serve it with lettuce wraps, rice or both! Video.
In essence, Larb is a refreshing Thai salad, usually made with ground meat (typically ground chicken, beef, lamb or pork), lots of fresh herbs (mint, Thai basil or cilantro), lemongrass, garlic, fresh chilies, red onions, lime juice, green onions. It is tangy, bright and refreshing, yet spicy and full-flavored, perfect for hot summer days!
Thai Larb Recipe
A fresh and flavorful recipe for Thai Larb Salad using your choice of ground chicken, turkey, beef or lamb! Serve this with lettuce wraps or rice, or both!
Prep: 15min
Total: 30min
Yield: 4
Nutrition Facts: servingSize None, calories 436 calories, Sugar 4.5 g, Sodium 1204.1 mg, Fat 27.2 g, Saturated Fat 11.7 g, Trans Fat 0 g, Carbohydrate 12 g, Fiber 2.8 g, Protein 21.1 g, Cholesterol 82.9 mg
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup hot water
- 2 tablespoons vinegar- white or rice wine
- 1 red onion (divided, see instructions)
- ——-
- 3 garlic cloves, rough chopped
- 4 tablespoons lemongrass, finely minced
- 1 teaspoon chili flakes, more to taste
- 16 ounces ground chicken, turkey, beef, lamb,
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- —–
- 2 cups cucumber, sliced or diced
- 2-3 radishes, sliced (or watermelon radish)
- 3 scallions, thinly sliced
- 1 tablespoon fresh chili, finely minced (optional, or sub jalapeno, Thai red chili)
- 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
- 1/2 cup chopped mint
- 1/2 cup chopped basil (Thai basil elevates)
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce
- 4-5 tablespoons lime juice
- 1 teaspoon brown sugar, maple, or honey
- finely chopped fresh chili- optional!
- Serve with lettuce wraps or jasmine rice or both!
Instruction:
- Dice half the onion (you’ll need 1 cup diced) and thinly slice 1/4 of the onion ( 1/4- 1/2 cup).
- Place the sliced onions in a bowl, cover with 1/2 cup hot boiling water and 2 tablespoons vinegar, place in the fridge.
- Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add 1 cup diced red onion, saute 3-4 minutes, add garlic, lemongrass and chili flakes. Saute until fragrant, 2-3 minutes. Add the ground meat, breaking it apart with a metal spatula. Season the meat with the salt and pepper and continue cooking until all the liquid releases and evaporates about 10 minutes. Drain the fat from the meat, using a fine-mesh strainer.
- While the ground meat is cooking, prep the remaining ingredients. Place the cucumber, radish, scallions, mint, basil, cilantro, fresh chili (optional) in a bowl. Add the drained meat and the strained pickled onions. Add the fish sauce, lime juice and sugar. Taste, adjust salt, lime and heat. I’ll usually add more chili flakes. or finely diced fresh chilies.
- Serve with lettuce wraps and/or cooked rice. Serve warm or chilled. ( If chilling, make doubly sure to strain all the fat from the meat -it will harden in the fridge.)
Thai larb recipe (larb moo ลาบหมู)
Thai larb made with minced pork (larb moo ลาบหมู) is one of the most popular Thai streets foods in Isaan cuisine. It’s a wonderful combination of minced pork, lime juice, chili flakes, fish sauce, and herbs to give it a refreshing touch.
Prep: 30min
Total: 35min
Yield: 1 – 2
Ingredients:
- About 5 tablespoons of uncooked Thai sticky rice (but for the actual dish I used about 1 heaping tablespoon after we made it into powder – see directions)
- 300 grams (1 pound) minced pork (minced chicken or minced beef will also work well)
- ½ – 1 tablespoon of chili flakes (prik bon)
- ⅛ tablespoon of sugar (just a pinch)
- ½ tablespoon of fish sauce (here’s the fish sauce I use)
- 1 – 2 limes (I used the juice from about 1.5 limes)
- 3 – 4 small shallots (Thai shallots are only about the size of grapes, so if you have bigger shallots just use however much you want)
- A few leaves of Culantro – this is an herb also known as long coriander, it tastes a little like cilantro (if you can’t find any cilantro, don’t worry about it, it’s not a must)
- 3 – 5 spring onions (green onions)
- About 20 leaves or so of fresh mint
Instruction:
- First step is to make the toasted rice (khao kua ข้าวคั่ว).
- Heat a frying pan on low heat, toss in the uncooked Thai sticky rice (no oil). Stir continuously, kind of like you’re roasting peanuts or coffee. Toast the rice until it turns from white to golden yellow, almost to the point where it looks like brown wheat. It will also be very fragrant and smell almost like popcorn. It took me about 15 minutes or so.
- Once the rice is finished toasting, and has cooled off a bit, put it into your stone mortar and pestle. Pound the rice until it turns into a coarse powder (a blender or food processor will also work fine). Put your toasted sticky rice powder in a bowl aside.
- Add 300 grams of minced pork to a small sized saucepan with a handle. Fry the pork, breaking it into small minced pieces, until it’s fully cooked all the way through. For best flavor, leave all the oils that come out (but if you want to be healthier, you can also drain the pork oil, and add in a splash of water instead). Take the pork off the heat.
- Leaving the pork in the same pot, add 1 heaping tablespoon of the toasted rice powder into the pork. Also toss in ½ – 1 tablespoon of chili flakes.
- Add a pinch of sugar, ½ tablespoon of fish sauce, and squeeze in the juice from 1 – 2 limes (I used about 1 ½ full limes, but I like it quite sour).
- Give the pork and the seasoning a quick stir.
- Peel and slice the shallots, finely mince about 5 green onions and a few culantro leaves (if you have them), and just pluck about 20 or so mint leaves off the stem. Throw everything into the saucepan with the pork.
- Give the larb moo a good mix, making sure all the spices and dressing coats the pork.
- Taste test. See if it needs more fish sauce for saltiness, lime juice, or chili flakes. Get it the way you want it.
- Dish it out onto a plate and garnish with more mint leaves, Thai sweet basil, and culantro.
Authentic Thai larb recipe (larb moo ลาบหมู) – Thai Recipes
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