Vietnamese Shrimp Salad (Goi Tom)

Vietnamese Shrimp Salad (Goi Tom) is a fresh and herbaceous Asian style slaw with great texture and crunch. It’s served with a sweet, salty, and tangy dressing. This healthy salad can be served as an appetizer, side, or main dish!

    

Vietnamese shrimp salad is a glorious amalgamation of crispy shredded cabbage and carrots, tender poached shrimp, fragrant herbs, and crunchy peanuts. It’s served with nuoc cham, a fish sauce based dressing that is bold yet sweet, tangy, and salty. It can be made mild or spicy to taste. This is the stuff us Vietnamese use on EVERYTHING. It’s so good!!!

I grew up eating this salad, but my mom used to make a chicken version called Goi Ga. (My parents raised five kids on a blue collar single family income. Chicken was a more affordable choice.) Both versions are delicious, but I love shrimp just a bit more. So if shrimp is not your thing, chicken is a great substitute!

The salad is served undressed. You add the nuoc cham dressing, as desired, at the table. Allow the flavors to meld about 5 minutes before eating. Sprinkle the chopped roasted peanuts over the salad after you mix in the dressing (as seen in some of these images) so that you can fully appreciate the crunchiness and nuttiness the peanuts impart.

Ingredients needed:

• Shrimp—peeled and deveined shrimp are poached until cooked through. Its tenderness plays well with the crispy crunchy cabbage and carrots. This recipe uses extra large shrimp, but use any size can be used. You only need to adjust the poaching time accordingly.
• Cabbage— I have always had the salad with regular green cabbage, but savoy or napa cabbage are good substitutes. For added color, replace some of the green cabbage with red cabbage.
• Carrots— store bought shredded carrots can be used in a pinch, but I think they are too thick. I prefer to shred my own using a vegetable peeler to obtain thinner delicate strips.
• Fresh herbs—a generous amount of herbs make the salad wonderfully fresh and fragrant. I typically use all mint, or mostly mint and some cilantro. I love the bright fresh pop of flavor the mint imparts. Vietnamese coriander (rau ram) or Thai basil are also good options. Feel free to mix and match the herbs as desired.
• Onion—typically, sliced white or yellow onion go into this salad. But for a colorful salad, I like to used red onion. If you don’t like the sharpness and bite of onions, soak the slices in cold water for 5-10 minutes for the flavor to mellow out.
• Roasted peanuts—unless you’re allergic, chopped roasted peanuts is a must have garnish. Aside from the nuttiness, they add great texture and additional crunch.
• Nuoc cham—is made with nuoc mam, sugar, lime juice, water, rice wine vinegar, garlic, and red pepper flakes (or chili sauce). This sauce is the hallmark of Vietnamese cuisine. The star ingredient is nouc mam, a fish sauce…but don’t let that scare you! This magical sauce adds tremendous depth of flavor and umami. The dressing doesn’t taste like fish! It can be found in the Asian food aisle of most grocery stores. Get it at the store if you can. It’s much cheaper than online. If you want to buy online, I use this brand.

Recipe highlights:

• Whisk together sugar, nuoc mam, lime juice, rice wine vinegar, water, chopped garlic, and red pepper flakes for the dressing. Set aside.
• Season water with salt and black pepper. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat and add shrimp. Cover for 2-3 minutes or until shrimp are curled, pink, and opaque.
• Transfer shrimp to a water bath to cool. Pat dry.

• If you want to hand shred carrots, make scores down along the sides with a sharp paring knife. Run a vegetable peeler over the slits to create thin shavings.
• In a large mixing bowl or platter, layer shredded cabbage, carrots, onion, chopped mint and cilantro. Add shrimp. Add the nouc cham dressing. Toss. Garnish with chopped roasted peanuts.
• Refer to recipe card below for detailed instructions.

View the how-to video or save for later with this Pinterest Pin.

How to substitute chicken for shrimp:

As I mentioned earlier you can replace the shrimp with chicken. Poach your own. 12 ounces of skinless-boneless chicken breast will do for this recipe. Hand shred and allow to cool before adding to the salad.

Poach your own, or as a time saver, use rotisserie or leftover chicken! I have!

Recipe shortcuts:

• For the cabbage— save time and effort, use or packaged shredded cabbage. Angel hairstyle is great. It’s delicate but still has a nice crunch.
• For the carrots—get store bought if you really don’t want to shred your own, but keep in mind, the matchstick size is a little too thick for goi tom.
• For the shrimp—buy store bought precooked shrimp.

How to store:

• For best quality, do not dress the salad before storing. Keep the dressing and salad in separate air tight containers. Because of the shrimp, the salad keeps for up to 2 days refrigerated. The dressing keeps well, refrigerated in an airtight container, for up to 2 weeks.

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Vietnamese Chicken and Cabbage Salad

Author: Thao | In Good Flavor Cooking Method:Layering, MIxing Cuisine:Vietnamese Courses:Appetizers, Sides, Main Recipe Keys: V Vegetable P Pescatarian L Light and Healthy

Difficulty:BeginnerPrep time: 20 minutesCook time: 3 minutesTotal time: 23 minutesServings:6 Servings

Description

Vietnamese Shrimp Salad (Goi Tom) is a fresh and herbaceous Asian style slaw with great texture and crunch. It’s served with a sweet, salty, and tangy dressing. This healthy salad can be served as an appetizer, side, or main dish!

Ingredients

• 3/4 pounds (26/30 count) extra large shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 8-9 cups thinly shredded cabbage (about 1/2 of a medium cabbage)
• 1/4 cup thinly sliced sweet or red onion
• 1/2 cup loosely packed mint leaves, coarsely chopped
• 1/8 loosely packed cilantro leaves, coarsely chopped
• 1/4 cup chopped roasted peanuts
• ice cubes and water for the shrimp water bath

Nuoc Cham Dressing:

• 1/4 cup fish sauce (nuoc mam)
• 2 teaspoons rice wine vinegar
• 2 teaspoons lime juice
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon chopped garlic
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (or garlic chili paste to taste)

Instructions

Make the nuoc cham:

1. Add all the nuoc cham ingredients to a small bowl. Whisk to dissolve sugar. Set aside for the flavors to meld.

Poach shrimp:

2. Bring a medium saucepan filled halfway with water to a boil. Season with salt and black pepper. Remove from heat. Add shrimp. Cover for 2-3 minutes or until they curl into a “C” shape and are pink-ish in color.
3. Have a bowl filled with ice and water ready. Use a slotted spoon to transfer shrimp into the ice water. Leave for 5 minutes to cool and chill. Remove and pad dry. Refrigerate.

For the salad:

4. Cut cabbage into wedges and thinly slice into strips. Use a vegetable peeler to thinly shave carrot strips. Optional: use the tip of a paring knife to scores down the sides of the carrots, 1/5-inch apart. Then use a vegetable peeler to shave into strips.
5. Thinly slice onion and coarsely chop mint and cilantro.
6. Assemble salad in a large bowl or platter as follows: cabbage, carrots, onion, herbs, and shrimp. Refrigerate if time permits. Salad is best served cold. Add nuoc cham when ready to serve. Garnish with chopped peanuts. Allow salad to sit for about 5 minutes for the flavors to meld.
7. Makes 6 appetizers, 4 sides, or 2-3 main dish servings.

Notes

• If using different size shrimp check for doneness accordling. Smaller shrimp require less time and large ones require more time. It takes about 1-5 minutes for shrimp to poach, with roughly 1 minute for small shrimp and about 5 minutes for extra colossal.
• If you want to mellow out the bite and sharpness on onion, place the slivers in a bowl of cold water for 5-10 minutes. Pat dry before use.
• If you don’t like cilantro, use all mint. Thai basil is also a good replacement.
• Variation: use 12 ounces of shredded chicken instead of shrimp.

Keywords:Vietnamese Salad, Shrimp Salad, Nouc Cham, Asian Slaw, Shredded Cabbage

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