Thai Beef Salad (Yum Nua)

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My Thai Beef Salad is juicy seared sirloin sliced thin over crisp greens, sweet mango, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, and a small mountain of fresh mint, cilantro, and Thai basil. Everything is coated in a punchy lime and fish sauce dressing and topped with roasted peanuts. A 35-minute Thai steak salad that eats like a full dinner!

Thai Beef Salad (Yum Nua) with Mango and Herbs

Every summer I hit the same dilemma: it's too hot to turn on the oven, but a bowl of greens alone is not dinner. So, let's do what I do best - let's add some protein to the salad. And let me introduce you to an authentic dish from Thailand: Thai beef salad.

I first had a taste of Thai Beef Salad (called yum nua (ยำเนื้อ) in Thailand) in 2017, during three months traveling through Southeast Asia. A full month of that was Thailand, and I ordered this salad constantly, usually alongside Thai chicken curry or Pad Thai.

Eat that way for a month, and one thing becomes obvious: Thai food isn't about heat. It's about balance. The balance of sour, salty, sweet, and spicy. That could not be more true of this Thai Beef Salad. A dozen flavors are happening here all at once, and not one of them overwhelms the others.

Here's how I make this salad in a nutshell: I slice pan-seared sirloin thin and layer it over crisp greens, sweet mango, some mint, cilantro, and Thai basil. Then, I toss everything in a lime and fish sauce dressing that is sour, salty, sweet, and hot in the same bite. It takes 35 minutes and one pan.

It's served warm or at room temperature, never chilled, so the steak still carries a little heat when it's combined with the greens and the herbs. And it's more assembly than cooking. The steak takes ten minutes; everything else is slicing. If you can make my grilled steak salad, you can make this one with your eyes closed.

What Is Yum Nua?

Thai Beef Salad is called yum nua (ยำเนื้อ) in Thailand. Yum (also spelled yam) means "salad" or "to toss," and nua means "beef." When the beef is grilled first, you'll see it on menus as yum nua yang (ยำเนื้อย่าง), or "grilled beef salad."

Why You'll Love It

• It's a real dinner, not a side salad. A pound and a half of sirloin across four plates means nobody's going to be hungry after eating this! It's a complete meal in one bowl. Protein, produce, healthy fats, and big flavor!
• 35 minutes, start to finish. The steak takes 10 minutes. Everything else is slicing.
• The dressing is a 5-ingredient flavor bomb. Lime, fish sauce, palm sugar, garlic, chiles. It's the same sweet-salty-sour balanced flavor I use in my Thai basil beef, and it's endlessly useful once you've made it.
• Thai Beef Salad is high-protein, naturally gluten-free, dairy-free, and low-carb.
• Sweet mango balances the heat. Every spicy, salty bite gets softened by a cool ribbon of ripe mango.
• Endlessly flexible. Use whatever herbs, greens, and cut of steak you have. I'll show you the swaps below.

Ingredients and Substitutions

I split the ingredients into three simple groups (dressing, beef, and salad) so you can prep them in whatever order fits your evening. Scroll down to the recipe card for the complete recipe or keep reading for helpful tips.

1) For the Dressing

• 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice - freshly squeezed, please. Bottled lime juice tastes flat and slightly bitter here.
• 3 tablespoons fish sauce - This is a really integral part of the dressing, and I don't recommend skipping this. If you need to, there are vegetarian versions available. If you do need to skip it, use soy sauce instead. I use Thai Kitchen, the same brand I use in my Thai Chicken Curry Soup and Thai Coconut Curry Salmon. Fish sauce might smell aggressive in the bottle, but it mellows into pure savory flavor once it hits the lime.
• 1 tablespoon palm sugar or light brown sugar - palm sugar is what's traditional, and it has a soft, caramel-like flavor. Light brown sugar or granulated sugar work well, too. Try to stay away from honey or agave syrup.
• 1 tablespoon neutral oil - avocado, grapeseed, or canola. Or light olive oil labeled as mild, appropriate for high-heat cooking (not extra virgin).
• 1-2 Thai red chiles, finely minced - these are prik kee noo, bird's eye chiles, and they are genuinely hot. Start with one, seeds removed, and taste. You can always add more.  If you can't find them, a serrano or half a jalapeño works. You can also just add a pinch of red pepper flakes to make up the difference.
• 1 garlic clove, finely minced - raw garlic here, minced as fine as you can get it.

2) For the Beef

• 1½ pounds sirloin steak - sirloin is lean, beefy, and slices beautifully. Flank, skirt, hanger, flat iron, or ribeye all work too (see my notes below).
• ½ teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon black pepper - that's the entire seasoning. The dressing is the flavor.
• 1 tablespoon neutral oil - for searing.

3) For the Salad

• 10-12 ounces hearty salad greens - Baby romaine, nappa cabbage, or butter lettuce would work well. You can also use little gem, spring mix, or a combination. You want leaves with structure that won't collapse under a warm dressing.
• 1 ripe mango, peeled and cut into thin strips. Mango should be ripe but still firm, so the strips hold their shape instead of turning to mush. If you buy an extra one, my avocado mango salad and 15-minute mango salsa are two of my favorite ways to use it up.
• 2 cups mixed yellow, orange, and red cherry tomatoes, halved
• ½ English cucumber, halved lengthwise and sliced (or 4 Persian cucumbers)
• 1 large carrot, peeled and julienned or shredded
• 1 shallot, thinly sliced - milder and sweeter than red onion, and traditional in yum nua.
• ½ cup fresh mint leaves, ½ cup fresh cilantro leaves, ½ cup fresh Thai basil leaves - a cup and a half of herbs sounds like a lot. It isn't. In Thai cooking, herbs are treated as a vegetable, not a garnish. Also, I really recommend using Thai basil as this is a very important ingredient for a Thai salad, but if you need to, use regular basil.
• ½ cup roasted peanuts (roughly chopped) brings salt and crunch. Cashews work too. If you love peanuts as much as I do, check out my Crunchy Asian Salad with Peanut Dressing.

How to Make Thai Beef Salad - Step-by-Step

(Full ingredients and instructions are in the recipe card below)

• Make the dressing. Whisk lime juice, fish sauce, sugar, oil, chiles, and garlic until the sugar dissolves. Taste and adjust.

• Sear the steak. Pat dry, season with salt and pepper, and sear in hot oil about 3-4 minutes per side for medium-rare.

• Rest and slice. Rest the steak 5-10 minutes, then slice thinly against the grain.

• Assemble. Toss greens, mango, tomatoes, cucumber, carrot, shallot, and herbs in a large bowl.
• Dress and serve. Add the sliced beef, pour over most of the dressing, toss gently, and finish with peanuts and the remaining dressing.

The Best Cut of Beef for Thai Beef Salad

• I use sirloin, and I recommend it for most home cooks. It has real beefy flavor, it stays tender when sliced thin, and it's easy to find at any grocery store without a special trip. That said, this salad is very forgiving on the cut.
• Flank steak - lean, flavorful, and made for slicing thin against the grain. My top pick after sirloin.
• Skirt steak - the most flavorful of the bunch, but cook it fast and hot and slice it thin, or it turns chewy.
• Flat iron - surprisingly tender and underrated. Great here.
• Ribeye or New York strip - a splurge, but wonderfully rich against the sharp dressing.
• Leftover grilled steak - no shame in this at all. Slice it cold, let it sit in a spoonful of the dressing for 10 minutes, and build the salad around it.
• Whatever cut you use, slice against the grain. Look for the parallel lines running through the meat and cut across them, not with them. It makes a huge difference between tender slices and chewy ones, and it especially applies to lean cuts like flank and skirt.

About the Thai Beef Salad Dressing

This dressing is called nam jim, and the whole idea behind it is balance. Sour from lime, salty from fish sauce, sweet from palm sugar, and hot from fresh chiles. There's very little oil, which is why it tastes so bright and clean compared to a creamy or balsamic dressing.

Whisk the palm sugar into the lime juice and fish sauce first, before you add anything else. Palm sugar is firmer than brown sugar and takes a minute to dissolve. If you're using light brown sugar instead, it dissolves almost immediately.

Then taste it. I mean it. A straight spoonful will be intense, so dip a piece of cucumber in and taste that instead. Too sharp? Add sugar ½ teaspoon at a time. Too salty? Add lime juice. Not enough kick? More minced chile. Your limes, your fish sauce brand, and your chiles will all be a little different from mine, so adjust to match your taste.

Variations

• Grill instead of sear. This is actually more authentic. Use a charcoal or hardwood grill to cook your steak for a smokier char flavor.
• Traditional: Adding toasted rice powder when you're tossing the salad, as well as on top, will add another layer of texture and flavor to the salad.
• Rice Noodles: Try adding the salad onto chilled rice vermicelli noodles for a different experience.
• Make it with chicken, shrimp, or tofu. All work. If you love Thai flavors with chicken, you can also try my Thai Chicken Meatballs along with this salad.
• Skip the mango. Sliced pineapple, red grapefruit segments, or green papaya all work. Or use my pineapple mango salsa as a topping.

What to Serve With Thai Beef Salad

This is a full meal on its own, but if you're feeding a crowd or want to stretch it further:

• Jasmine rice or sticky rice - the traditional pairing, and it soaks up the extra dressing.
• Rice noodles - toss cooked, cooled vermicelli right into the salad to turn it into a noodle bowl.
• A Thai soup starter - my Thai Chicken Curry Soup makes it a proper dinner party.
• Something noodly on the side - my Pad Thai and Thai Zucchini Noodles are quick and pair well with the bright dressing.

More Thai Recipes You'll Love

• Pad Thai with Chicken and Shrimp - chewy rice noodles in a tamarind-fish sauce base
• Thai Chicken Curry - creamy one-pan curry with sweet potato and bell pepper
• Thai Chicken Curry Soup - coconut red curry broth with rice noodles
• Thai Coconut Curry Salmon - 30 minutes, one pan
• Thai Chicken Meatballs - simmered in red curry coconut sauce

More Steak Recipes To Try

• Beef Bulgogi (Korean BBQ Beef) - another thin-sliced beef favorite
• Steak with Green Sauce and Sweet Potatoes
• Garlic Butter Steak with Brussels Sprouts and Butternut Squash
• The Steak Marinade of Your Dreams
• 15 Steak Recipes Worth Making