Burmese Green Tomato Salad Recipe

Burmese food is more than tea leaf salad, which is deliciously complex and requires sourcing the fermented tea leaf. Last week, after eating at Kyain Kyain, a Burmese restaurant in Fremont, California, I was in the mood to explore the cuisine further. I opened the Burma Superstar cookbook, written by Desmond Tan and Kate Leahy. Burma Surperstar is a popular Bay Area restaurant but I wasn’t looking to recreate its dishes. I was looking to find easy recipes that may be made at home without having to source unusual ingredients. 

The authors savored this salad at a restaurant near the Mount Popa temple, an important place of worship. They write that green tomato salads are commonplace in Myanmar (the official name of the country, though many still refer to it as Burma), and that the fruit’s tartness appeals to many people. Interestingly, in Vietnamese, tomatoes are called ca chua, tart eggplants, and the kind often found in country are red but under-ripe and firm tart. They are mostly enjoyed in cooked dishes.

The cultural connection was part of the Burmese green tomato salad recipe’s appeal. Another was that it’s summer and you can find green, unripe, rock hard tomatoes at farmer’s markets, grocery stores if you live in the southern part of the United States, and in home gardens. I’ve pickled green tomatoes with lemongrass and chile and fried them too! A third attraction was the salad’s refreshing quality and its easy prep. 

Be not afraid of raw shallot

The first time I made this Burmese green tomato salad, I was afraid the shallot would overwhelm. Our dinner guests were good friends and hearty eaters but I didn’t want to subject them to next day shallot breath. Plus I was serving another Burmese salad with a bunch of raw red onion; there was also an intense fermented shrimp paste relish on the menu that employed a bunch of cooked onion. My remedy was to soak the sliced shallot for 5 minutes to reduce its harshness. The result was too mild. 

What I didn’t anticipate was the chile oil cutting the harshness of the shallot. The bit of lime juice made the ingredients pop in bright flavor the but the chile oil, which is something I’m not used to in Southeast Asian salads, allows for the use of lots of bold flavors like the raw shallot and garlic. Oil mollifies. 

The next day, I made the salad again, rinsing the shallot under running water for 10 seconds and then letting it sit to drain. That tamed the shallot a bit but allowed some of its natural bite to remain.

Green vs red tomatoes

With all the heirloom tomatoes at specialty grocers and farmers’ markets, you may think that a green tomato is a specific kind, such as the Green Zebra or Emerald Evergreen. Nope. Think more simply and less fancy. A green tomato is just a rock hard, unripe tomato. It may have a little yellowing but cut it open and its texture is firm and crisp. 

I scored three of them from a farmer at the market the other day. In the American South, check regular grocery stores. For example, a couple weeks ago in Birmingham, Alabama, the Piggly Wiggly was selling green tomatoes at a good price. 

If you’re growing tomatoes, you likely have some green ones on the vine right now! A friendly farmer may also pick some for you, if you make the request. Get a bunch and make one of my favorite pickles too!

That said, using all green tomato for this Burmese salad resulted in an overly firm, one dimensional dish. Burmese food is subtly layered with flavors. So in my second go at the green tomato salad, I combined one huge unripe beefsteak tomato with a very firm red tomato and a few cherry tomatoes. My aim was to build extra textures and colors. 

When it's not green tomato season, those seemingly yucky supermarket tomatoes will definitely work for this salad!

Crushed vs. chopped peanuts

The recipe calls for crushing peanuts, which you can do in a small mortar and pestle, or in hand-cranked chopper , which my parents adore. Crushing the peanuts makes them a little fattier tasting. But if you don’t want to pound and crush, chop them and call it a day. 

And, if your peanuts seem tired, light toast them in a pan over medium-low heat until they are hot and a little shiny from their oil releasing. Let them cool completely before using. 

Burmese food seems exotic and  unfamiliar because it’s relatively new to many people. Restaurants have a certain range of recipes that celebrate popular and often times complicated dishes that expats expect. But dig a little deeper and explore a good cookbook or two to find simple gems like this one. 

Note: The flavor of the salad is subtle, which makes it great for pairing with bold dishes. I sometimes punch it up with a drizzle of fish sauce but it depends on what you’re serving the salad with. Keep that in mind. You want a balance of savors in a meal.

Related recipes

• Burmese Egg and Okra Curry
• Green Tomato and Lemongrass Pickle

Print Recipe

5 from 1 vote

Burmese Green Tomato Salad

Green tomatoes are unripe, rock hard fruits. They’re usually jade green in color. When they are unavailable, make this easy Burmese salad with very firm red tomatoes or cherry tomatoes. Combine the tomatoes, if you like! This recipe was adapted from Burma Superstar by Desmond Tan and Kate Leahy.

Course: Salad

Cuisine: Burmese, Southeast Asian

Keyword: green tomato

Servings: 4 people

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons peanut oil
• 1 Thai or serrano chile, cut into thick rounds
• ¼ teaspoon dried chile flakes
• 1 pound green tomatoes, very firm red tomatoes, and/or cherry tomatoes
• ½ cup thinly sliced shallot
• 2 garlic cloves, smashed flat with the blunt side of a knife blade
• ¼ cup roasted unsalted peanuts, crushed in a mortar and pestle or finely chopped
• 1 juicy lime, halved
• Salt
• 1 cup coarsely chopped cilantro sprigs

Instructions

• In a small saucepan, combine the peanut oil, fresh chile and dried chile. Place over medium heat and let warm for 1 minute, until fragrant. Remove from the heat and let cool while you prepare the remaining ingredients.
• Cut the tomatoes into thin wedges, each about ¼-inch wide at the thickest. (With cherry tomatoes, halve or quarter each lengthwise.) Transfer to a mixing bowl. Add the shallot, garlic, peanuts, chile oil, and 2 generous pinches of salt. Squeeze half of the lime (a good 1 tablespoon) over the top. Use a large spoon, or your hands, to mix well. Taste, squeezing extra lime juice on top or adding more salt. The amounts used depends on the tomatoes. (I've ended up using a total of about 2 tablespoons of lime juice and ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt.)

  When satisfied, add about ¾ cup of the cilantro, gently combine, then heap onto a rimmed serving dish. Include all the juices. Garnish with the remaining cilantro and serve.

Notes

• For extra rich flavor, use semi-refined or unrefined peanut oil, such as Spectrum brand. If you’re allergic to peanuts, use 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil and 1 tablespoon neutral oil such as canola oil; replace the toasted peanuts with an equal amount of unsalted roasted cashews, or 2 tablespoons of toasted and slightly crushed sesame seeds. 
• To choose a juicy lime, look for ones with smooth, slightly shiny skin.