Thai Pomelo Salad (Thai Grapefruit Salad) – Yum Som O

This Thai pomelo salad is a fruit salad that bears little resemblance to a sweet western-style fruit salad. Instead of the sweetness of added cream or ice cream, it has a savory, tart, yet sweet taste thanks to the yum sauce and is often served with shrimp.

There are a few types of Thai salad. One is Som Tam, a group of salads including the classic Som Tam Thai, where the ingredients are pounded. Yum which includes this pomelo salad recipe called Yum Som O where ‘Yum’ means mixed together.

Another group of salads include Nam Tok and Larb dishes though they do not meet what Westerners would imagine are salads.

How to Make Thai Pomelo Salad or Yum Som O Video

Link to the video in case it does not load properly for you

Why You Should Make Pomelo Salad?

Grapefruit and pomelo have very high Vitamin C content along with low calorie counts which makes it a great fruit to eat without making you fat.

The grapefruit diet used to be a thing, and for good reason. Your calorie intake was much reduced by eating grapefruit instead of some other high-calorie food.

Apart from diet, Thai pomelo salad tastes just great because of the intriguing taste of the yum sauce. We especially like it served with shrimp or prawns but they can be omitted if you prefer.

Ingredients You’ll Need

• Thai Pomelo or a couple of Sweeter Style Grapefruit
• Fish Sauce (or vegetarian substitute)
• Palm Sugar (or brown sugar as a substitute)
• Tamarind Paste
• Lime Juice
• Crispy Shallots or Onions (bought or made yourself)
• Crispy Garlic (bought or made yourself)
• Toasted Coconut (dry fry to toast coconut)
• Large Shrimp (optional)
• Small Dried Shrimp (optional)
• Cooking Oil for Saute

Is Pomelo the Same as Grapefruit?

Pomelo and grapefruit are very similar, the pomelo being the parent species to grapefruit. Pomelo is larger, has thicker skin, and has larger segments inside. Pomelo tastes like a sweet grapefruit.

The pomelo is the predecessor of the grapefruit, the latter being an accidental cross between a pomelo and sweet orange that originated in Barbados.

Where grapefruit is plentiful in the west, pomelo is plentiful in south-east Asia. If you visit a local Thai market you will see the whole fruit as well as ready peeled fruit served with chili salt.

But you can readily substitute the pomelo for grapefruit in this recipe without the taste being radically different. For that reason, we can also call it Thai grapefruit salad.

Making Yum Som O Step by Step

Step 1 – Prepare the Pomelo

Cut into the thick skin of the pomelo and slice the skin off with a sharp knife. Don’t worry too much about the white pith at this step but do try not to cut most of it off but not so deep that you cut into the flesh. Check out a few other methods to peel a pomelo.

Once the skin is off, use a knife to make a start in separating the thicker bits of the white pith that might remain. Once you get a start you can pull the thick pith off with your fingers.

Next, we want to pull the pomelo in half. Use a knife to carefully tease away the white pith and stem sub away from the flesh beneath to expose the segment details. Use a knife to cut in half between segments and then separate the pomelo in half, and pull apart with your fingers.

One segment at a time, use a knife to separate the segment membrane from the flesh and then break each fleshy segment into about three pieces to create bite-sized lumps. Place these gently into a bowl for the time being.

Step 2 – Making the Yum Sauce for Shrimp Seasoning

We’ll start by making the yum sauce but we’ll only use a bit for seasoning the shrimp, the rest will make for the main salad dressing,

Mix the fish sauce, palm sauce and tamarind paste over a low heat to dissolve the palm sugar.

Taste and adjust if necessary. The taste should be partly savory, partly sweet with a sour note from the tamarind paste.

Step 3 – Saute the Shrimp & Season

Add a little olive or cooking oil into a pan and heat. Add in the shrimp and saute each side to cook through.

Season with a little bit of the yum sauce you made in step 2 to season, remove from the pan and put to one side.

Step 4 – Putting the Pomelo Salad Together & Finishing the Yum Salad Dressing

Add the crispy onions to the prepared pomelo, followed by the dried shrimp if using, crispy garlic, roasted coconut, and shrimp.

Add the fresh lime juice to the yum sauce to make the dressing and pour over the salad – serve immediately.

Decorate with some ornamental carved peel if you feel creative – see the video below.

Thai Pomelo Salad Recipe