What the heck are winged beans? Glad you asked. They are Thai superhero green beans tossed in this lovely, coconutty, creamy Thai salad that is dairy-free too.
Serve this creamy salad alongside Thai basil chicken, curry mussels, or easy baked sriracha salmon.
What are winged beans?
Winged beans are an Asian pea plant with roots and leaves that are entirely edible.
They look kind of like a crunchy, waxy, green bean that spread wings. The Thai superhero of green beans!
If you can find them, they are delicate and need to be eaten soon after buying, else their wings start turning black.
Traditional Thai salad
Winged beans are commonly found in Thai dishes chopped into thin slices for a salad.
It is usually seasoned with:
- ground pork
- poached shrimp
- hardboiled eggs
- fried shallots
- fried garlic
- coconut milk
- tamarind
- fish sauce
- lime juice
- palm sugar
Simplified Thai Winged Bean Salad
For simplicity, this recipe just uses the hardboiled egg, and skips the addition of pork and shrimp.
This recipe also eliminates the tedious chopping by slicing the beans lengthwise.
How to make Thai Winged Bean Salad
Step 1: Hardboil eggs
I hardboil eggs by putting eggs in a pot of cold water.
- Bring to a boil and simmer for 8 minutes.
- Turn off heat
- Cover the pot with a lid and let sit for 8 minutes.
- Remove eggs into an ice bath or cold water.
- Peel and rough chop into a small dice.
- Reserve some of the chopped egg to garnish on top.
Step 2: Prep winged beans
After slicing the winged beans, into a pot of boiling water they go.
Cook for about 1-2 minutes until the pot returns to a boil.
Drain and run under cold water or shock in an ice bath to cool.
Step 3: Make coco-nutty dressing
This dressing often has tamarind in it. For the sake of simplification, it is eliminated in this recipe.
Whisk the following items together:
- coconut cream
- fish sauce
- chili garlic sauce
- fresh lime juice
- shallot
- sugar
To make this vegetarian, you can substitute the fish sauce with soy sauce.
Step 4: Toss and serve
Toss the blanched winged beans and chopped hard-boiled egg with the coconut dressing.
Garnish with the reserved chopped egg on top.
Try out this coco-nutty, zippy, zingy Thai dressing for an unusual side salad.
Other Coconut Cream Recipes
As we know, once you've opened that can of coconut cream, it must be used fairly quickly, probably within a week.
You can also use coconut cream for Thai black rice pudding or as a topping for your cold brew coffee.
Tips to make it better @home
- If you can't find winged beans, regular green beans work well too.
- To make this vegetarian, substitute fish sauce with ½ Tb soy sauce and additional salt to taste. Also, leave the egg garnish for the top, so the soy sauce doesn't make it brown.
- Other items you could add are poached shrimp, cooked ground pork, fried shallots, grapefruit segments, or fried garlic chips.
- To make ahead of time, complete all steps but mix the dressing with the beans when ready to serve.
- Keep in the fridge to snack on for up to 3 days.
Other Easy Salad Recipes
Smashed Cucumbers - Angry & Vegan
Quickest, Coolest Japanese Tofu Salad
Recipe
Thai Winged Bean Salad
Ingredients
- 1 lb Thai winged beans about 2 heaping cups
- 2 ea hardboiled eggs chopped into ½" dice
Coconut Dressing
- 2 Tb coconut cream or ¼ c coconut milk
- 1 Tb fish sauce
- 2 tsp lime juice about ½ lime squeezed
- 2 teaspoon minced shallot
- 1 tsp chili garlic sauce or sriracha sauce
- 1 teaspoon sugar
Instructions
- Bring large pot of water to a boil. Cut wing beans lengthwise and then cut in half.
- Blanch beans in boiling water for 3-4 minutes until crisp tender. Shock in ice water or run under cold water. Drain well.
- Mix dressing ingredients together in a bowl. Toss with drained beans and chopped egg. Reserve some chopped hardboiled egg for garnish on top.
Notes
- If you can't find winged beans, regular green beans work well too.
- To make this vegetarian, substitute fish sauce with ½ Tb soy sauce and additional salt to taste. Also, leave the egg garnish for the top, so the soy sauce doesn't make it brown.
- Other items you could add are poached shrimp, cooked ground pork, fried shallots, grapefruit segments, or fried garlic chips.
- To make ahead of time, complete all steps but mix the dressing with the beans when ready to serve.
- Keep in the fridge to snack on for up to 3 days.
Nutrition
P.S. Do you like coconuts or the coconut song? Please spread the Asian ♥ and share!
Alma says
Made this yesterday with my winged beans and it was a hit with the husband and 5 yr old. We all went for a double serving. I will plant these again next spring for a bumper fall crop. Thank you for the recipe!
[email protected] says
Hi Alma! Look at you with your own backyard bounty of winged beans!!! How lucky, and I am quite jealous because these can be hard to find. Thank you so much for writing and trying the recipe. Super happy you liked it and found a way to enjoy those beans Thai style! 🙂