Prepare Thai banana blossom salad with prawns and coconut dressing

Banana blossom salad pairs thinly sliced raw banana flower with cooked prawns, toasted coconut, and a dressing that combines tamarind sourness, palm sugar sweetness, fish sauce saltiness, and coconut cream richness. This guide follows the formula published by food writer Leanne Kitchen for SBS Food, which serves four. It covers preparing a fresh blossom, identifying the condiments, making the dressing, and assembling the salad.

What this salad should deliver and when to make it

The finished dish is an assembled, uncooked salad. Fine slices of the pale inner banana blossom are tossed with whole cooked prawns, sliced spring onion whites, lightly toasted fresh coconut, and coriander leaves. The salad is coated in a coconut cream dressing and topped with fried shallots. All cooking happens before assembly: the prawns arrive cooked and the coconut arrives toasted. As a result, the final step is a quick toss rather than time at the stove.

This structure makes the salad well suited to a shared meal for four. The dressing and the cooked components can be ready before you sit down, and the blossom is drained and tossed at the last moment.

Ingredients

Kitchen's recipe uses Australian measures, where a tablespoon holds 20 ml. A US tablespoon holds about 15 ml, so measuring with US spoons would shortchange every spoon-measured ingredient by about a quarter. The table gives each Australian measure with a US spoon equivalent.

Component	Recipe amount (Australian measures)	US spoon equivalent
Banana blossoms	2	—
Lemon juice (for soaking water)	juice of 1 lemon	—
Salt (for soaking water)	1 tbsp (20 ml)	1 tbsp + 1 tsp
Water (for soaking)	2 litres	about 8½ cups
Cooked tiger prawns, peeled and cleaned	20	—
Spring onion whites, sliced	3	—
Fresh coconut, shredded and lightly toasted	60 g	weigh it
Coriander leaves	1 bunch	—
Fried Asian shallots	to finish	—
Dried shrimp (dressing)	1½ tbsp (30 ml)	2 tbsp
Tamarind concentrate (dressing)	2 tbsp (40 ml)	2 tbsp + 2 tsp
Lime juice (dressing)	1 tbsp (20 ml)	1 tbsp + 1 tsp
Grated palm sugar (dressing)	2 tbsp (40 ml)	2 tbsp + 2 tsp
Fish sauce (dressing)	2 tbsp (40 ml)	2 tbsp + 2 tsp
Nahm prik pao (dressing)	1 tbsp (20 ml)	1 tbsp + 1 tsp
Coconut cream (dressing)	60 ml	¼ cup

Identifying nahm prik pao

Nahm prik pao is roasted Thai chili paste. In stores it is sometimes labeled "chili paste in soybean oil" or "chili paste with soybean oil." Look for those wordings if the Thai name does not appear on the jar.

Components to prepare in advance

The recipe assumes two components are already prepared:

• Prawns that are cooked, peeled, and cleaned
• Shredded fresh coconut that is lightly toasted

The recipe does not give a method, time, or doneness cue for either one. Have both finished before you start slicing the blossoms. This guide does not supply cooking steps or safety cues for raw prawns, so if you buy them raw, follow a reliable prawn-cooking method separately.

Equipment

• A food processor or small chopper to break down the dried shrimp
• A sharp knife and cutting board for the blossoms
• A large bowl for the 2 litres of soaking water
• A mixing bowl for the dressing
• A wide bowl for tossing the salad
• Australian 20 ml spoons, or US spoons used with the conversions above

Method, in order

• 1. Make the dressing. Process the dried shrimp until fine. Combine it with the tamarind concentrate, lime juice, grated palm sugar, fish sauce, nahm prik pao, and coconut cream.
• 2. Prepare the soaking water. Mix 2 litres of water with the juice of one lemon and the salt. Do this before you cut any blossom, so the slices can go straight in.
• 3. Trim the blossoms. Peel away the outer purple-red bracts. Remove the small flower clusters tucked between the layers.
• 4. Slice the inner bracts. Cut the paler inner bracts thinly on the diagonal. Let the slices drop directly into the lemon-salt water.
• 5. Slice the cores. Halve the cores, then slice them thinly on the diagonal into the same water.
• 6. Check your other components. Make sure the prawns are cooked and peeled, the coconut is toasted, the spring onion whites are sliced, and the coriander leaves are picked.
• 7. Drain the blossom. Leave it in the water until you are ready to assemble, then drain it.
• 8. Toss the salad. Combine the drained blossom with the prawns, spring onion whites, coconut, coriander, and dressing. Toss gently.
• 9. Finish. Scatter the fried shallots over the top.

When to change course

• If you have not made the lemon-salt water yet, stop before cutting the blossom. The method sends the slices straight into it.
• If the prawns are still raw or the coconut is untoasted, finish those first. Assembly is meant to be the last step, and the blossom should not be drained early.
• If your spoons are US 15 ml spoons, use the converted amounts. Otherwise the dressing will come out with less of every spoon-measured element.

Judging progress and completion

Because nothing is cooked during assembly, the cues to watch are about preparation and handling:

• Trimmed blossom: the outer purple-red bracts are gone, and no small flower clusters remain between the layers you plan to slice.
• Sliced blossom: the inner bracts and halved cores are cut into thin diagonal slices, and the slices sit in the lemon-salt water rather than on the board.
• Dressing: the dried shrimp is finely processed rather than left in whole pieces, and all seven dressing ingredients are combined.
• Finished salad: blossom, prawns, spring onion, coconut, and coriander are evenly coated after a gentle toss, with fried shallots on top.

The recipe does not describe a target taste balance for the dressing or how long the sliced blossom can stay in the water. Taste and soak time are therefore your own judgment. Combining the dressing first gives you a chance to taste it before it meets the salad.