How to Make a Show-Stopper Fish Salad
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This vibrant fish salad was inspired by Vietnamese gỏi xoài, a dish usually made with green mango and shrimp.
Swapping the shrimp for pieces of poached lake trout works wonderfully with the piquant dressing; the fish’s strong taste shines through without overpowering. Using ripe mango instead of green adds a nice sweetness to the dish.
To make this salad extra colorful, vibrant, and show-stopping, use a large assortment of colourful root vegetables and mixed fresh herbs, which help to create a breathtaking salad that will impress everyone who sees it!
Head to a farmer’s market, or upscale grocer like Whole Foods to find colorful root vegetables like candycane or Chioggia beets, golden beets, colorful mixed carrots, daikon radish, watermelon radish, colorful mixed radishes, and other root veggies like parsnips, celeriac, and rutabaga. If cutting so many roots into matchsticks seems daunting, consider purchasing a julienne peeler—an inexpensive scalloped vegetable peeler that does the work for you.
I used lake trout for this salad, and found it to be a great fit with the pungent dressing, but you could use any fish, like snapper, pike, bass, salmon, grouper, catfish, etc. You could even use shrimp or other wild-caught/foraged seafood.
Try this out and wow your friends!
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How to Make a Show-Stopper Fish Salad
4
servings1
hour5
minutesKeep the screen of your device on
Ingredients
1 cup rice or white vinegar
1 cup hot water
1/2 cup white sugar
4 cups julienned (cut into matchsticks) root vegetables (daikon radish, watermelon radish, carrot, turnip, red radish, rutabaga, parsnip, candy cane beet, golden beet, etc.)
1/3 English cucumber, julienned (cut into matchsticks)
Salt
12 oz boneless, skinless fish fillets
1 large mango, peeled and julienned
1/2 small red onion, sliced thinly
2 cloves garlic, minced
1-3 Thai red chilies, minced (1 for mild, 3 for spicy)
2 tablespoons white sugar
2 tablespoons fish sauce
2 limes, juiced
2 cups fresh herbs (cilantro, Thai basil, Italian basil, mint, sawtooth herb, perilla, Vietnamese coriander, etc.), hand-torn
1/4 cup store-bought crispy shallots (optional)
1/4 cup roasted peanuts, chopped (optional)
Preparation
- Add vinegar, sugar, and hot water to a large bowl. Mix well until the sugar dissolves. Add the julienned root vegetables and toss in the liquid. Soak for 30 minutes.
- After 15 minutes has elapsed, add the julienned cucumber to the marinade as well.
- After 30 minutes, drain the vegetables and squeeze and shake off most of the liquid. Reserve 2 tablespoons of the liquid.
- Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add a big pinch of salt, then reduce to a bare simmer. Add the lake trout fillet(s), and poach for about 5 minutes, or until the thickest part of the fish flakes easily when pressed with a spoon or fork.
- Remove the fish from the poaching liquid and let cool. Once cool, break into bite-sized pieces.
- Add the mango, onion, fish, and drained marinated vegetables to a large bowl.
- To make the dressing, add the garlic, chilies, sugar, fish sauce, lime juice, and the reserved marinade together in a small bowl. Mix until sugar dissolves. Set aside.
- Add the hand torn herbs to the bowl of veggies, then pour over the dressing. Toss everything together very well, making sure to remain gentle with the fish so it doesn’t fall apart too much.
- Transfer onto plates in a haystack-like pile. Sprinkle over crispy shallots and/or peanuts if using. Serve on its own, or as part of a larger SE Asian meal. Enjoy!
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