Lotus-Stem Salad
Gỏi ngó sen tôm thịt
Shrimp and pork over shredded lotus rootlets, squeezed and dressed until every strand snaps — the Mekong Delta's crunchiest gỏi, jarred rootlets included.
By Vietnamese Cookbook Kitchen · April 15, 2026
The Mekong DeltaThe Lê Dynasty era, 1428–1789
Gỏi- Prep
- 35 min
- Cook
- 15 min
- Serves
- 4
- Level
- Intermediate
Lotus grows across Vietnam, but the Mekong Delta claims a particular fondness for it — Đồng Tháp province especially, where lotus ponds are a working crop and every part of the plant, from seed to root to the leaf used for wrapping rice, finds its way to the table. Gỏi ngó sen takes the plant's stem, the ngó sen, hollow and faintly crunchy, and turns it into a salad built the way southern gỏi always is: something crisp as the base, pork and shrimp for substance, and a fish-sauce dressing sharp enough to wake the whole plate up. It shows up at family tables and wedding banquets alike, dressed up or down depending on the occasion.
The salad rises or falls on water management — lotus stems are mostly water, and dressing poured over undrained vegetables just runs off the plate. Squeeze the stems dry before dressing, then squeeze the finished salad again before it's served, and what you get is genuinely crisp: a hollow snap against tender pork, sweet shrimp, and a dressing that clings instead of pooling. Eaten fast, ideally with a shrimp chip in hand, it's one of the few salads on this site that rewards being made right before the table sits down, not an hour before.
Squeeze the lotus stems dry before they ever meet the dressing, then squeeze the whole salad again right before serving. Every bit of water you don't remove is a bit of dressing about to go missing.
Lời đầu bếp · A word from the kitchen
Ingredientsnguyên liệu
Serves 4
Salad base
- 400 glotus rootlets (ngó sen) — fresh if your market carries them, split lengthwise and shredded; jarred, pre-shredded lotus stems packed in brine are the reliable find abroad — drain and rinse them well, see the FAQ
- 200 gpork shoulder or belly — boiled whole until just cooked, cooled, then sliced paper-thin
- 200 gmedium shrimp — boiled in their shells until pink, peeled, and halved lengthwise
- 1carrot — julienned
- 1small yellow onion — very thinly sliced, soaked in cold water 10 minutes to soften its bite
Dressing
- 45 mlfish sauce — 3 tbsp
- 45 mlfresh lime juice — 3 tbsp, about 1½ limes
- 35 gsugar — 3 tbsp
- 2garlic cloves — minced
- 1bird's-eye chili — minced
To finish
- 1 handfulVietnamese coriander (rau răm) — roughly torn
- 50 groasted peanuts — crushed
- 1batch shrimp chips or rice crackers (bánh phồng tôm) — fried, for scooping — optional but traditional
Methodcách làm
Step 1: Salt and squeeze the lotus stems
Toss the shredded lotus stems with a pinch of salt and let them sit 10 minutes, then squeeze them hard, a handful at a time, until no more water runs out. This step decides whether the finished salad is crisp or soggy — do not skip it for fresh or jarred stems.
Step 2: Mix the dressing
Whisk the fish sauce, lime juice, and sugar until the sugar dissolves, then stir in the garlic and chili. Taste it straight — it should run sharply sweet-sour-salty on its own, since it's about to be diluted by a bowl of vegetables and meat.
Step 3: Combine the salad
In a wide bowl, toss the squeezed lotus stems, carrot, and drained onion with about two-thirds of the dressing. Let it sit 5 minutes so the vegetables take on color and flavor before the meat and shrimp join.
Step 4: Add the meat and shrimp
Fold in the sliced pork and shrimp along with the remaining dressing, tossing gently so the delicate shrimp halves stay whole. Taste and adjust — a gỏi that tastes balanced in the bowl will taste slightly flat by the time it reaches the table, so lean a touch sharp now.
Step 5: Squeeze once more, then plate
Give the whole salad one more gentle squeeze-toss with clean hands right before serving to shed any last water that's pooled at the bottom of the bowl. Mound it onto a plate rather than a bowl — height keeps it from sitting in its own liquid.
Step 6: Finish and serve immediately
Scatter the rau răm and crushed peanuts over the top and serve at once with shrimp chips for scooping. This salad has a short window — dressed lotus stems soften within the hour, so build it close to serving time.
Đồ nghề · The tools
Equipment
Mandoline
Bàn bàoĐồ chua lives or dies on evenness — carrot and daikon cut to the same whisper-thin matchstick pickle at the same speed. Use the guard; every Vietnamese grandmother has the scar that says otherwise.
Shop on Amazon →Julienne peeler
Dao bào sợiThe three-dollar tool that shreds green papaya and mango into long, springy threads for gỏi. Look for the Thai Kiwi brand — it hangs in every Southeast Asian market for a reason.
Shop on Amazon →
Equipment links are Amazon affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases, at no cost to you. Disclosure.
Questions from the kitchen
Can I use jarred lotus rootlets?
Yes, and most cooks outside Vietnam do — look for jars labeled lotus stem or lotus root strips in brine at Vietnamese or Southeast Asian groceries. Drain them, rinse off the brine, and taste a strand before salting further, since the jar's liquid is already salty. They won't have fresh lotus's faint sweetness, but the crunch, which is the point of this salad, holds up fine.
Why squeeze the lotus stems twice?
The first squeeze removes the vegetable's own water so it can absorb the dressing instead of diluting it; the second, right before serving, catches the water the salt and dressing pull out afterward. Skip either step and you get a puddle at the bottom of the plate and a dressing too weak to taste.
What's the difference between this and a green papaya gỏi?
Same family of dish — a Vietnamese salad built on fish-sauce dressing and a crunchy vegetable base — but lotus stem brings a hollow, faintly mineral crunch that papaya doesn't, and it's the vegetable delta cooks reach for when lotus ponds are in season. Either salad follows the same squeeze-and-dress rhythm underneath.
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