🦑🦐🍋 Thai-style cold seafood salad (Yam Talay) super detailed recipe + editor's authentic tips

Yam Talay is the ultimate summertime cooldown and appetizer! It's spicy and sour, and refreshing! Shrimp, squid, clams, and mussels are mixed in a sauce, topped with onions, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, and cilantro. It's a huge bowl, bursting with color and texture, and is both appetizing and low in calories! Our Hong Kong-style seafood salad is incredibly easy to make, perfect for parties or family dinners! 🦐🦑🍅

Ingredients (Serves 3-4)

• 10-15 shrimps (shelled, backs opened and deveined)

• 1-2 squid (cut into rings/flowers)

• 8-10 clams/mussels (clean and open the shells, mix with other seafood as desired)

• 1 bunch of vermicelli (can be omitted or used as a staple food)

• Half an onion (shredded)

• 1 cucumber (shredded)

• 1/3 carrot (shredded)

• 6-8 cherry tomatoes (cut in half)

• A little cilantro (cut into sections)

• 1 green onion (diced, optional)

• 2-3 cloves of garlic (minced)

• 2-3 chili peppers (diced, reduce the amount if the pepper is mild)

Thai seafood salad sauce

• 2-3 tablespoons fish sauce

• About 2.5-3 tablespoons of lemon juice (about 1-2 lemons)

• 1.5 tablespoons granulated sugar

• 1/2 tablespoon chili sauce (optional)

• 1 tablespoon each of minced garlic and shallot

• A little sesame oil (optional)

Detailed cooking process

1️⃣ Soak the vermicelli until softened, then boil in hot water for a while, then rinse with cold water and set aside.
2️⃣ Blanch all seafood one by one until just cooked (take out shrimps as soon as they change color, squids after about 30 seconds, and clams as soon as they open), rinse in cold water to cool, and drain.
3️⃣ Soak onion, cucumber, and shredded carrot in ice water. Add coriander, chopped green onion, and cherry tomatoes, mix well, and drain.
4️⃣ Mix all sauce ingredients (fish sauce, lemon juice, sugar, chili pepper, minced garlic, and chopped shallot) until the sugar is completely dissolved. Taste to adjust the sauce to spicy/sour/sweet.
5️⃣ Add vermicelli, seafood, vegetables, and lettuce to a large bowl, pour the sauce over it, mix well, and finally sprinkle with coriander leaves.
6️⃣ If you don’t like the fishy taste, you can add shredded ginger or a little black pepper.

Editor's recommendation

• Rinse seafood in cold water immediately after cooking to keep it fresh and chewy.

• Soaking onions in water can remove the spiciness and make them crisper and sweeter.

• The ingredients can be mixed with tomatoes, yellow peppers, shrimp meat, etc. to make the color and taste richer.

• It can be eaten with pancakes, vermicelli, or rice. The extra sauce is great for dipping vegetables.

• Thai lime is more fragrant than lemon, but lemon is generally used instead in Hong Kong.

A big bowl of Thai-style cold seafood salad is appetizing for the whole family, and it's healthy and not fattening, a must-have for parties! I can make it at home super quickly, and you'll love it once you try it~🦐🥗🍋