Watermelon Salad With Fried Shallots and Fish Sauce

By J. Kenji López-Alt

Total Time: 15 minutes
Rating: 4(386)
Notes: Read community notes

This simple salad hinges on a classic Southeast Asian flavor combination: sweet-hot-savory. This recipe calls for watermelon, but you could also use pineapple, cantaloupe, green mango or pomelo, or even leftover grilled steak or poached shrimp, as the combination of dressing, herbs and fried shallots can enliven a wide range of flavors. But using a mortar and pestle instead of the food processor and seeking out palm sugar instead of substituting brown sugar is strongly suggested here. The recipe will make more dressing than you need, so feel free to experiment after getting used to it.

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Ingredients

Yield:4 servings

For the Dressing

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

For the Salad

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

Ingredient Substitution Guide

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.

Tip

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.

Ratings

4 out of 5

386 user ratings

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Private Notes

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Cooking Notes

sam2 years ago

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).

Ellen2 years ago

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.

Daniel2 years ago

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.

RoLo2 years ago

For anyone planning to buy the fried shallots at an Asian store, the product is often labeled as "fried onion" or "fried red onion" rather than as shallots.

Erica2 years ago

You can actually buy vegan fish sauce and it’s awesome! I’m allergic to seafood (to the point where even just a tsp of fish sauce in a dish with lots of other ingredients causes an allergic reaction for me), but I love the flavor that fish sauce brings to any dish, so I hunted down an alternative. I purchased the 24Vegan brand on Amazon (which has tripled in price since I bought it last year so may be cheaper elsewhere), and it brings the glorious umami/perfect funk just like regular fish sauce!

Es2 years ago

Excellent salad. Refreshing, spicy, multi-textured, deeply satisfying. I used 2 thai chiles and that was more than enough for my taste so if you don't do real spicy go easy. Brown sugar instead of palm and fried onions from a can.

Amazing.10 months ago

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.

Gail10 months ago

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!

Carly10 months ago

This was SO GOOD!

Barbara Tucker11 months ago

Excellent,,, Used light brown sugar , 1/2 of a habanero pepper. Cut back on fish sauce by half Toasted canned French fried onions as directed Made dressing with immersion blender in 2 cup Pyrex Saved cut up fruit separately from dressing to have leftover Delicious. Would be great for a potluck

Kiko11 months ago

Only used 2 Thai chiles and maple syrup instead of palm sugar and it came out great. I cut the watermelon into thin triangles, added tomatoes, halved grapes and nectarines and added a bit of basil on top. Used half the dressing on the salad as the recipe called for and although it tasted strong before adding it to the watermelon, it was almost delicate once it was on it and infused the fruit with a hint of flavors in the dressing. Everyone loved it. Very elegant salad.

Melissa1 year ago

This was a huge hit at last year's 4th of July cookout. Favorite dish for quite a few ppl, will make again! As always, taste as you go and make adjustments for salty/sweet/sour.

Jennie1 year ago

The salad I made would have easily served 8, and I absolutely followed the recipe. Someone said it doesn't overnight wall, but I just had some left over for lunch and while the peanuts and shallots are not longer crisp, it still tastes fantastic. And there are still about 4 hearty servings left! BTW, I made my own fried shallots and it wasn't onerous. The worst part was trying to slice the little nubby shallot ends on the mandolin. And now I have a jar of lovely shallot oil!

molllllballlll1 year ago

This dish is glorious!! Incredible Asian flavors wrapped up in the most perfectly summery dish 😍

Samantha1 year ago

Very tasty but the dressing wasn't as strong as other commenters were suggesting. I ended up using all the dressing and then added extra lime juice on top. I used 2 chilis and could have possibly gone up to 3.

Candie1 year ago

I'm now obsessed with this salad. The dressing is very similar to what you would have in Thailand as a Papaya Salad. With any recipe, taste and adjust as you go. I added a bit of maple syrup to sweeten the sauce as I found it a bit sour- But some may like that.

Talya1 year ago

Completely addictive!!

kiffykiff2 years ago

Is there a preferred brand of store bought fried shallots?

Shane2 years ago

This is a wonderful, refreshing salad perfect for a summer night's meal. I made it tonight and added around 20 poached shrimp to it. It was a major hit. I used the mortar and pestle to make the sauce, which was pretty difficult and messy and even after 30 minutes of grinding didn't fully incorporate the skins of the chilies. I think next time I'd just use a blender or food processor, but overall the combination of textures and flavors and the mix of spicy, sweet and salty is perfection.

KCD2 years ago

Wow! I wasn’t expecting to love this but it’s quite delicious! Everything works together so well. If you were on the fence I would definitely give it a go. While I’m sure it was not as delicious we used generic fried onions from the grocery store, as well as brown sugar and a habanero for the dressing.

Jeff Stone2 years ago

We found the dressing way too salty. Doubled the lime juice and added 2 oz shallot oil....NICE.

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