This green mango salad with grilled tom yum prawns is so fresh, delicious, and full of textures and flavors. It is perfect as a light lunch or can be served as an appetizer. Thank you to Mekhala Living for sponsoring this post. All opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting the brands that make Beyond Sweet and Savory possible.

Growing up in Vietnam, green mango was one of my favorite childhood snacks. My mom would cut thin slices of green mango for me to dip in a mixture of fish sauce, sugar, and chile. It was an explosion of umami, sour, sweet, and heat flavors. Once I got older, green mango became a permanent part of my salad repertoire. I’m so excited to share a refreshing salad of green mango with grilled tom yum prawns created in collaboration with Mekhala Living.
Mekhala Living has a wide range of paste from curries, laksa, to tom yum made in small batches in Chiang Mai. All their products are gluten free, vegan, and nut free and work with paleo, whole30, and gluten free diets. I have been using their tom yum and curries in soups for a long time and couldn’t be more thrilled to partner with a company that supports and empowers women in developing Asian countries.

First up, marinate those prawns! I used a mixture of Mekhala tom yum paste, fish sauce, lime juice, olive oil, sugar, garlic, and chopped marut lime leaves for the marinade. Mekhala tom yum paste is made from high quality, organic ingredients with no artificial flavorings or preservatives. While tom yum is regularly used in a soup, I love using it to flavor protein especially seafood like prawns. The prawns need an hour in the marinade to pick up the flavors.

While you wait for the prawns to marinate, get your mango and herbs ready. For this salad I used under ripe green mango. You can use either Vietnamese or Thai mangoes that are easily found at Asian supermarkets. If you cannot find green mango, green papaya is the perfect substitute. To shred the mango, there are a few methods. The goal is to create strips of mango anywhere from 3-5 inches in length and about ⅛ of an inch thick. I used a mandoline but you can easily accomplish this with a very sharp knife if you don’t own one.
My favorite trick is to hold the peeled mango lengthwise on its side in one hand and methodically hack at it with a large knife, making lengthwise grooves in the flesh every ⅛ inch. If you’ve traveled to Southeast Asia, you might have seen a street vendor do this. Once you’ve made sufficient cuts in the flesh, stand the mango up on a cutting board and use the knife to shave off shreds. Repeat until you have the amount of shredded mango needed. I keep the mango shreds in a bowl of ice cold water to keep it crisp. You can shred the mango a few hours before you plan on using it. Just leave it in the fridge covered to keep it crisp. For the herbs, I simply remove the leaves and chop them into bite size pieces.

Prior to grilling the prawns, I also prepare the lime dressing. It’s made with fish sauce, lime juice, chopped garlic, red chilli, sugar, and water. I added only 1 bird eye’s chili but you’re more than welcome to add as many as your taste buds can tolerate. The lime dressing is essential to bringing the salad together. Once I have everything ready, I throw the prawns on the grill. Each prawn needs about 2 minutes on each side to cook.

This green mango salad with grilled tom yum prawns is so fresh, delicious, and full of textures and flavors. The combination of tom yum marinade with the smoke from the fire brings all the umani flavor. I would be happy just eating these prawns right off the grill but they’re even more delicious with the shredded mango, herbs, roasted peanuts, fried shallots, and lime dressing. Every bite is so addicting and before you know it, you’ve polished off the whole salad and still crave for more!

What I love about this green mango salad with grilled tom yum prawns is how easy and quickly you can throw it together! In every bite you get sour, salty, sweet, hot, and umami flavors that embody Southeast Asian cuisine. There won’t be any leftovers for this salad so make sure you scale up the ingredients if you want leftovers for lunch the next day. The recipe is simple and the result is so delicious thanks to Mekhala tom yum paste!
For more Southeast Asian salad inspiration, check out these recipes: Vietnamese shaking beef or papaya salad.
If you try this recipe, please let us know how you like it! Leave a comment, rate it, and don’t forget to tag a photo #beyondsweetandsavory on Instagram. We truly appreciate your feedback and incorporate them to continually improve our recipes.

Green mango salad with grilled tom yum prawns
Ingredients
- One green mango (about 1.5 pounds), shredded
- ¼ cup Thai basil leaves
- ¼ cup Vietnamese mint leaves
- ¼ cup mint leaves
- ¼ cup cilantro
- ¼ cup roasted peanuts, chopped
- 2 tbsps fried shallots
Grilled tom yum prawns
- 1 ½ pounds medium prawns (heads and tails intact)
- 2 tbsps Mekhala Living tom yum paste
- 2 tbsps fish sauce
- 2 tbsps freshly squeezed lime juice
- 2 tbsps extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tbsps granulated sugar
- 2 tbsps chopped marut lime leaves
- 2 tbsps cloves of garlic, finely chopped
Lime dressing
- 2 tbsps water
- 2 tbsps fish sauce
- 2 tbsps freshly squeezed lime juice
- 2 tbsps granulated sugar
- 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
- 1 red Bird eye’s chili
Instructions
- Combine tom yum paste, fish sauce, lime juice, olive oil, sugar, chopped lime leaves, and garlic in a bowl. Add prawns and turn to coat. Cover and marinate in the fridge for 60 minutes.
- To make the lime dressing, in a bowl combine fish sauce, lime juice, water, sugar, garlic, and chili. Whisk until sugar is dissolved.
- Peel mango and halve, discarding seeds, then finely shred using a mandoline or grater and place the shredded mango in a bowl of ice cold water to keep it crisp.
- Lightly grease a barbecue or chargrill pan and preheat to medium-high. Cook prawns for 2 minutes each side or until lightly charred and just cooked.
- When ready to serve, drain and squeeze the excess water from the shredded mango. Divide it among serving plates, top with herbs, grilled prawns, chopped peanuts, fried shallot, and lime dressing.
Toan Dang
Dear Vy,
I really like the photos with the simple white background that helps brings up and focus the beautiful foods
Love the way to use a lager knife and hack into the pilled green mango balanced on the other hand! I have never tried green mango salad with grilled prawns. A must do when we have green mangoes next in September next year in our yard.
Vy Tran
Hi Toan! Growing up that's how my mom cut mango and papaya in Vietnam. I wish we could grow mango here but the soil isn't good for mango.
Toan Dang
Hi Vy,
Mango can grow well on all kind of soil. If your location has a mild winter then you should be able to grow them. The location is more important than the soil type.
I has been trying to grow mangoes for more than 15 years. In the early years I even had hair driers running under the young trees to keep them from freezing in the Winter. No more, as I learned to select the location and how to grow healthy mangoes. Healthy trees will get through cold winter in SoCal with no problem, without protection.
If you still want to have a mango tree, I can help. Do you have a cool near ocean weather, or over 85F in summer? For area that has over 85F in the summer, then plant the young trees on the East side of the house, or any structures for afternoon sun protection. You mango tree will sufferer in the hot west facing sun. Mature trees love hot sun.
Don't buy grafted trees as they are weak and won't grow. Buy trees that grown from seeds, or you can start the tree from seed. Best is to buy a 3 gal seedling (not grafted) from HD or Lowes. Most Asian nurseries only sell grafted varieties - people want to buy Xoai Cac, or Kent, name varieties that they love -- but this is the reason why most people failed, as the grafted tree doesn't grow well in CA as the young tree try to send out flowers, and no energy left to grow or defend the disease in the cold winter. A seedling will grow faster and stronger, and after 3 or 4 years, it starts having flower and fruits -- no name fruits but that is ok as you will graft your favorite varieties on this healthy tree. Wait until the seedling has fruits, then if the fruits are not good to your liking, then just graft the varieties that you like on the tree. You can easily buy cuttings (3" long pencil size woods for grafting) by mail order from Florida, or I can send you some of what I have.
Keywords: location and seedling.
Best,
Toan.
Vy Tran
Thank you so much for the wonderful tips! We get mango for most of the year in San Diego so it's not too bad going without them for a couple months. I'm also seeing more Vietnamese mangoes at the supermarkets so it's nice to have other options. I wish we had Vietnamese fruit stores like the ones in OC. Right now our yard has some really big trees like fig, mulberries, and mang cau. We might add yuzu and peach and probably won't have room for mango. Thank you for offering to send your cutting! I really appreciate that. Happy holidays!