A salad with an unexpected and unique taste flavored with fermented tea leaves
Looking for a new food obsession? This salad could be the one!
Cuisine from Myanmar is not popular yet. I won’t be surprised though if one day I see Burmese curries and salads getting fashionable and more available in shops, restaurants, or the web.
So far, if you like it, good luck with finding the ingredients (or read my post further).
During three weeks in Myanmar, and a couple of months in northern Thailand where this salad is also popular, I had lahpet thoke, or လက်ဖက်သုတ်, countless times. Most dishes become boring after a while, but this one somehow never got me tired, on the contrary! I now found out how to prepare my pickled tea leaves and yep, I am keeping my Burmese habit to eat laphet thoke at least twice a weak.
And you already know it, green tea is packed with antioxidants. Good for us!
Fermented tea leaves are the distinctive, tangy ingredient here, but they might not be easy to find in many places. Luckily they are quite easy to make. You will just need 10 minutes to prepare the mixture, and a few days of patience to obtain the right pickled flavor.
Add some crunchy fried broad beans, roasted peanuts, and peanut butter to your veggies and you’ll have a uniquely flavored salad.
Lahpet, Burmese Fermented Tea Leaves Salad
Ingredients
Salad
- 1/4 cabbage, shredded
- 3 tomatoes, chopped
- 1/2 carrot, grated
- 1/2 onion, thinly sliced
- 1 garlic, crushed
- 1 tbsp fermented tea leaves, check ↓
- 1 tsp peanut oil
- 1 tbsp peanut butter
- lime juice
- salt
Topping
- crunchy fried broad beans, or chickpeas
- 1 tbsp peanuts, roasted
- 1 tbsp fermented tea leaves
- cilantro
Instructions
- Mix all the salad ingredients
- Serve on a plate and top with the peanuts, broad beans and the fermented tea leaves.
Lahpet, Fermented Tea Leaves
Equipment
- Blender
Ingredients
- 50 g green tea leaves, neutral flavor
- 1 piece ginger
- 1 cup cabbage, chopped
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 garlic
- 1 lime, juice
- 1 tbsp salt
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil, best option: peanut
Instructions
- Infuse the dried green tea leaves in hot water for 10 minutes
- Enjoy your tea and put the remaining tea leaves in cold water for at least two hours, up to one day
- Drain and press on the leaves thoroughly
- Blend all the ingredients except the oil in a blender or food processor
- Place the mixture in a glass jar with a lid and let ferment at room temperature for 3 – 4 days
- Add the oil to preserve them
