Laotian Nam Khao (Crispy Rice Salad)
One of South East Asia’s hidden gems, Laotian Nam Khao (ແໝມເຂົ້າ) is a celebration of crunchy rice and fragrant, aromatic ingredients – it’s a taste and textural sensation.
As South East Asian salad recipes go, Laotian Nam Khao (Crispy Rice Salad) is one of the best you'll ever likely experience! I first tasted this salad in a Thai restaurant in Sydney, I was blown away by the complex taste and textures light, intense and fragrant. Years passed and I never saw it again on any menu until happening upon it in a tiny Laos market a matter of minutes from my home in Vegas.
The Laos Market serves only 4-5 items inside the mini-mart. All delicious, but none more so than the traditional Laos Nam Khao. It's served simply with a big pile of crunchy lettuce and an abundance of fresh herbs to wrap around the crunchy rice salad.
What makes Nam Khao so special?
The salad is a wonderful combination of flavour and textures. It's the texture specifically than makes it so memorable. Crispy, soft and aromatic in every bite. Here's the breakdown:
1. Cooked rice is combined with curry paste and a combination of aromatics like ginger, garlic, kaffir lime leaves and shallots. The mixture is worked into a homogenous consistency.
2. The rice mixture is then formed into small balls ready for the next (and magically transformative) step. Tip: I like to refrigerate the rice balls for 30 minutes to help firm up the shape to avoid breaking up during cooking.
3. Deep frying the rice balls is the next step. This creates a wonderful crispy outer surface while the centre remains soft. This creates the stand out texture of the finished Nam Khao salad.
4. The rice balls are then left to cool until needed. When ready, the balls are simply broken into small pieces - this ensures a good combination of crisp and soft textures when the final Nam Khao salad is put together.
A dressing, much like the Vietnamese Nước chấm dipping sauce is created from fish sauce, lime juice, rice vinegar and sugar with garlic, cilantro and chilli. It's a complex hit of the ubiquitous 'sweet, sour, salt and spice' that South East Asia is known for.
Som Moo / Naem Moo / Nam sausage
Another interesting ingredient is the amazing Som Moo sausage. A fermented sausage from Laos - it also found across South East Asia and goes under the names nam, nham, naem moo, naem maw, or chin som. I found mine in a Vietnamese supermarket called Nam.
It's made from finely ground pork and pork rinds and fermented. The som moo sausage in this salad is mashed and eaten raw, which is safe due to the fermentation process. Som Moo / Naem has a wonderful meaty, sour flavour and is really what makes this Nam Khao Salad recipe come to life! To get the authentic flavour, you really ought to hunt out some som moo. You can leave this ingredient out completely and still have a delicious salad, but... it's worth tracking down.
The Nam Khao salad comes together with fresh shallots, mint, cilantro, holy basil, peanuts, som moo, fried shallots and a healthy drizzle of the dressing. It looks wonderful and tastes even better. Traditionally, the salad is an appetiser or side-dish and served with lettuce leaves which are used to wrap mouthful sized portions. I also like to serve mine alongside more of the dressing, lime wedges and some dried or fresh chilli to spark things up should I feel the urge.
So, in essence, this Laotian Nam Khao Crispy Rice Salad is one of the tastiest South East Asian recipes I know. It's a healthy, fresh, bright and zingy taste and texture sensation! I absolutely love it and just know you'll love it too.
If you're looking for something to serve alongside this wonderful salad, then why not give some of my other South East Asian favourites:
- Laotian Chicken Larb (Larb Gai)
- Thai Curry Noodle Soup with Salmon
- Vietnamese Lemongrass Pork Chops
- Thai Crying Tiger Beef with Nam Jim Jaew Sauce
- Cha Kroeung Sach Moan
- Thai Satay Skewers
- Thai Peanut Dipping Sauce
- Satay Chicken Curry
- Vietnamese Pork with Lemongrass & Chilli
- Vietnamese Braised Pork Belly with Eggs – Thit Kho
- Burmese Chicken Curry
- Thai Yellow Curry with Minced Pork
Ingredients
- 2 cups Jasmine rice
- 2 tbsp Thai red curry paste
- 1 tsp ginger (minced)
- 2 garlic cloves (minced)
- 1 shallot (finely chopped)
- 2 kaffir lime leaves (very finely chopped)
- 2 tbsp fish sauce
- ½ tsp white pepper
- 2 tsp light brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp corn starch (cornflour)
- Canola oil (for deep frying)
For the salad dressing
- 2 tbsp fish sauce
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 2 tbsp lime juice
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar
- 1 garlic clove (very finely chopped)
- 1 stem cilantro (no leaves - finely chopped)
- 1 Thai chilli (finely sliced)
- ⅓ cup boiling water
Other salad ingredients
- 2 Thai Nam sausage (Also known as Lao Som Moo sausage) - fermented sausage
- ⅓ cup mint (roughly chopped)
- ⅓ cup cilantro (roughly chopped)
- ⅓ cup Thai Basil (holy basil) (roughly chopped)
- ¼ cup roasted peanuts (unsalted)
- 2 fresh shallots (thinly sliced)(soaked in ice water for 5 minutes)
- 2 tbsp fried shallots
- 2 spring onions (scallions)(finely sliced)
- 3 Thai chilles (finely sliced) (optional)
- Lettuce leaves (for wrapping Nam Khao) (optional)
Instructions
To make the rice balls
- Cook the rice until done. Remove from the heat and spread into a layer on a sheet pan (loosely covered with paper towels) to cool and dry a little. (about 2 hours)Meanwhile, prepare all the other ingredients, ready to assemble.
- When the rice is cooled, in a bowl, mix together all the other rice ball ingredients with the rice (except the oil).
- Wet your hands in a little water and then create small balls (about 2-inches) with the rice mix. Arrange on a plate while you repeat the process to use up all the mix. Refrigerate until needed.
- In a medium saucepan or fryer heat the oil (about 3-inches for a pan) until hot (around 160ºC / 320ºF) – a cube of bread should sink then gently rice to the surface bubble when added. If the oil is too hot, remove from the heat and cool.Gently add about 5-6 balls into the oil and fry for 3-4 minutes each until crisp. Remove and drain on paper towels while you fry the rest in batches.
To make the dressing
- Combine all the ingredients (except water) then pour in the freshly boiled water and whisk. Leave to cool completely.
Arranging the salad
- Using your hands, break up the cooled rice balls into rustic pieces into a large salad bowl.
- Toss together the rice pieces with all the other salad ingredients. Pour over a little dressing and mix well.
Notes
Nutrition
Did you make my Laotian Nam Khao (Crispy Rice Salad)?
How did you go? Let me know in the comments below and be sure to tag @cookeatworld at Instagram.
This is an amazing recipe! Have made it twice now, first time forgetting the red curry paste and never had anything so texturally delicious and such a flavour explosion at the same time!
The only thing I would change is subbing I’m about 30% of the normal rice for glutinous/sticky rice! I think lao people use this rice more in their cooking and it adds a lovely chewiness to the crispy rice balls.
I also add a bit extra fish sauce to the dipping sauce and a bit more lemon to balance that extra fish sauce.
I also use chorizo cause I can’t ever find the laptop sausages anywhere, I’ll slice and put them in the air fryer with the rice balls after turning the first time. Air frying works so well :)
I like to eat everything unassembled and deconstruct it at the dinner table cause I’m a new age woman like that ;)
Thanks for the amazing recipe!
This is great news. I am taking your tip for the air fryer and trying it out next time I cook this. I can see this working with glutinous rice too, but I prefer jasmine as it’s not so chewy. As for sausage, you could also sub with any chinese sausage or even a little Chinese BBQ pork cut into tiny pieces. So many options.
Glad you enjoyed!
Anyrecommedationsforsausagesubstitute?IwenttotwodifferentAsiangrocerystoresandcouldn’tfindit.Iwaslookingforwardtotryingit,butwillhavetomakeduewithsomethingelse.Thankyou
(spacebarnotworking)
Firstly, no space bar! That’s a tragedy :)
Secondly, the sausage has such a unique flavour that it’s hard to substitute to be honest.
You can just omit it from the recipe though and still have yourself a very delicious dish. I would say it would be better to have no sausage than a different type. Hope this helps…
Lee
Incredible recipe! I looooove it
Thank you! It’s one of my all time ‘flavourites’ too.
Thank you for this recipe. I have made a couple of versions and found them tedious although delicious. But the flavour profile in this version is superior. The great game changer here was the realisation the other recipes had you making the red curry paste. The use of a pre-made red curry paste saves an hour on a already slightly lengthy prep. The result is I now feel I can make this a little more often and the friends I shared this with are amazed. I told them the only way to describe this dish, as none had ever heard of it, was that it was a Party in Your Mouth.
Thanks again. Greg
I agree that the use of a pre-made paste is a game changer. This recipe is already pretty labour intensive, so any help is welcomed. So long as you use a good quality paste there’s no problem at all. So glad you enjoyed my version and hope you cook it again.
Thanks
Lee
Don’t get me wrong, this recipe ended up being great, however, there was extreme frustration with creating the rice balls which greatly delayed my dinner plans. Everything kept falling apart. I’m used to making arancini and sushi and this was a whole nother thing. What finally worked for me was to use a 2.5″ round cutter as a mold and forcefully packing the rice. Refridgerating defintely is key and to hasten it, I put the tray in the freezer for 10 mins.
Sorry you had so much trouble with the balls. I would suggest a little more egg or cornstarch to make a slightly wetter or stickier consistency if this happens. Rice varies in absorbency so it can change the crumbliness from time to time. The recipe gives only a guide, so using whatever method you can to have the balls hold is all you can do. It’s not completely essential that they form perfect balls anyway, you can make irregular shapes as you’re crumbling them at the end.
Thanks for the feedback! I’ll keep an eye and see if this happens for anyone else and adjust if need be.
Lee
Amazing! Had something similar in a restaurant recently and have been wanting to make at home. It came out great, we couldn’t believe it – this recipe is a real keeper :)
It’s one of my favourite Lao/Thai dishes to order AND cook at home. Super tasty, with a great texture too. Glad you were happy! Thanks for sharing.
I wasn’t able to use the sausage as one eater is pescetarian. I served it with garlic and lime sauteed shrimp instead which went OK. I bet fried dried baby shrimp would have been really good. I really liked the Nuoc cham with the boiling water step. I think this helped to get the heat from the peppers (and garlic) incorporated into the sauce to become an underlying element. Not to mention the all-important cilantro stems! I used white sugar because I didn’t have light brown, it was fine. The serving suggestion was beautiful, a big plate with fresh lettuce leaves, mint sprigs, cucumber slices, and lime wedges with a small bowl of dressing in the middle. I used red and green chilis throughout for added color. When making the balls, I was a little worried, I tried to make them golf ball sized to start but they didn’t stick so well, so I used my whole hand to cup a baseball/snowball sized ball – it seemed to hold better (which is more in line with your 2″ recommendation) – cooling them in the fridge also solidified them quite a bit. I wonder if glutinous rice powder instead of corn starch might help bind things more? I was able to fry the balls well enough with only about an inch to an inch in a half of canola oil – I didn’t have enough for 3″ – it seemed to expand once it reached temperature anyway. We had the leftovers this morning and it may have been even better (though no serving platter)! … I think this recipe is enough for 3-4 people as a main course, or more if only an appetizer.
This sounds great – the shrimp sounds like a splendid idea too. You could make it without either and it would still be great. If you do manage to try it again without a pescatarian present, the nam sausage takes it to another level! Lastly, I’m sure you could use rice flour instead of cornstarch too.
Leftovers are even better! It’s uncommon for me to have any though as I’m extremely greedy. I ate this at a Lao restaurant not too long ago and showed the Lao lady my recipe. She suggested 3 times the amount of chillies, which I might try one day. Their version was pure FIRE!!
Thanks so much for your comment and glad you enjoyed so much.
When it says 2 cups of jasmine rice, does that mean 2 cups of cooked or uncooked rice? I really want to make this recipe, but I wanted to double check.
Hi there,
You would need 2 cups of uncooked Jasmine rice.
Thanks, and hope you enjoy!
Lee
I loved this. I found all the ingredients in one place here in Wisconsin and everything was so easy to follow. Love your recipes, I’ll definitely try more.
Thankyou,
Nam Khao is so delicious! You should also try my recipes for Laos Chicken Larb or Chicken Curry with bean sprouts. Laos food is so under represented!
Thanks
Lee
Hi Lee!
This is one of the tastiest meals ever! I made it at the weekend and everyone loved it. I did manage to find the sausage too at my local Asian supermarket in Chinatown (SF). it was so good, so thank you for the recipe.
Ben
Thanks Ben – It’s one of my most favourite things to order at a Thai or Laos restaurant. Glad you all enjoyed.
My favorite family Thailand special is so yum. your recipe just like home. But we make much more chilli! Thanks
I’m glad you like! Thank you. I add more chillies than the recipe normally – I like it spicy too!