Avocado

Burmese Tea Leaf Salad (Lahpet Thoke)

by:
December  6, 2014
5
1 Ratings
Burmese Tea Leaf Salad (Lahpet Thoke)
  • Serves 4
Author Notes

Inspired by Absolutely Monica —Oishii Moments

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • TEA LEAVES:
  • 1 cup white vinegar
  • 1 cup water
  • 1/4 cup loose green tea leaves (Sencha)
  • 1/4 cup sesame oil
  • 1/4 cup avocado oil
  • 1 tablespoon Maggi seasoning
  • 1 tablespoon fish sauce
  • 1/2 lemon
  • 1 tablespoon ginger
  • 1 garlic clove
  • sea salt (to taste)
  • SALAD:
  • 1 head romain lettuce, chopped
  • 2 tomatoes, diced
  • 1/4 cup toasted sesame seeds
  • 1/3 cup unsalted roasted sunflower seeds
  • 1/2 cup unsalted roasted peanuts
  • 1/3 cup fried garlic
  • 1 lemon
Directions
  1. TEA LEAVES FERMENTATION: Sort tea leaves and remove any twigs or hard pieces.
  2. Boil vinegar and water. Steep tea leaves in liquid for at least 10 minutes. Then, drain and rinse.
  3. Soak tea leaves in cold water for 1 hour. Then, drain and squeeze out any excess liquid.
  4. In a food processor, add tea leaves, sesame oil, avocado oil, Maggi seasoning, fish sauce, lemon, ginger, garlic cloves, and sea salt. Process the tea leaf mixture until the leaves are finely minced into a paste. Store in an airtight glass container in a cool and dark place at room temperature for 2 days.
  5. PLATING SALAD: On a plate, place chopped romaine lettuce, tomatoes and lemon wedges. Place each of the remaining ingredients on the salad (sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, roasted peanuts and fried garlic). Add a LARGE scoop of fermented tea leaf paste to the center of the plate (add more if necessary).
  6. Just before serving, squeeze a lemon over the salad and toss together!
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4 Reviews

David C.
David C. August 18, 2021
As good as Burma Love’s! Quadrupled the dressing recipe, and I’m planning on making this once a week. The only thing I changed was to use dark soy sauce instead of Maggi seasoning (which is basically soy sauce anyway). Also added channa dal, fried in the garlic oil, to the nut mixture. So delicious!
 
Rosella
Rosella May 25, 2021
I would like to know if this salad paste can store up for a long time and if i could use green tea leaves? Instead of avocado oil and Sesame oil, what else can I use? Thank you!
 
Larissa R.
Larissa R. December 23, 2014
I don't understand why there is 1c of vinegar in the ingredients when I don't see it being used in the directions.
 
Oishii M.
Oishii M. December 29, 2014
Sorry! The vinegar should be heated with the hot water to steep tea leaves. I'll update the language in the instructions. Thanks for catching that!