Watermelon Salad With Fried Shallots and Fish Sauce Recipe (2024)

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).

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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!

This was SO GOOD!

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

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.

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.

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!

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

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.

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.

Completely addictive!!

Is there a preferred brand of store bought fried shallots?

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.

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.

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