Papaya Salad with Tofu & Edamame beans

I found Papaya couple years ago, when i first ate papaya salad in a lovely Thai restaurant in Helsinki, called Lemon Grass. It was one of the greatest and simplest salads i had ever eaten. The power of the flavors are amazing! I made my own variation of the basic Papaya salad by adding some tofu and edamame beans in. Normally you put green beans and salty peanuts on in, but this one is without them.  The Recipe goes like this:

Ingredients:

• 1 green Papaya (You can fid this in most of the Asian stores)
• 2-3 Garlic cloves
• Red Chilies ( as much as you can take the heat! In Thailand, they make it really strong!)
• 1 Carrot
• Cherry tomatoes
• 1-2 branches of Spring onion
• Ginger
• Soy sauce (Kikkoman or other light soy)
• Fish sauce
• Sesame oil
• Basic cooking oil
• 2 limes
• Tofu (hard)
• Edamame beans (You can find these frozen in some stores and most of the Asian stores)
• Lettuce (Optional, for decoration if you want)

First marinade the Tofu with Soy sauce, Fish sauce and Sesame oil.  Add little bit of Garlic, Chili and Ginger on the marinade too. Peel the Papaya with special peeler ( that one you can buy cheaply in Asian stores) Or if you don't have a special peeler, you can use normal vegetable grater. First take the green peel away. Start peeling long thin slides into a bowl from the Papaya. Peel as much as you need, but stop peeling when you reach to the hard center of the Papaya. Mean while you can start cooking the Tofu on a hot pan with some cooking oil on it. Peel some thin slides of carrot also into the bowl. Add some half cutted Cherry tomatoes and some Spring onion into the mix. Add finely chopped Garlic, Chili and Ginger into the mix. Melt some Edamame beans on microwave(about 3 minutes), peel them and add the beans into the bowl. Pour some Soy sauce & Fish sauce in and mix it well. When the Tofu is cooked golden brown, put it on side to cool down. Add the Tofu into the salad and mix again. Squeeze some lime juice on top mix and taste that it has enough spice and taste! Add more sauces if needed. Pile the salad on top of lettuce and enjoy.