Vegan Vietnamese Mango Salad (Goi Xoai)
on Jan 14, 2025, Updated Jan 28, 2025
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A crunchy green mango salad hits all those delicious Southeast Asian flavor notes of hot, sour, salty, and sweet. Use vegan fish sauce to keep this salad fully vegan!

Many Southeast Asian dishes are very heavily centered on vegetables, though the addition of fish sauce tips them into non-vegetarian or non-vegan territory. This traditional Goi Xoai salad (green mango salad) recipe is made with vegan fish sauce, so the whole salad is vegan-friendly. Like many Vietnamese salads, goi xoai often contains shrimp, but this recipe just stays focused on the crunchy, delicately sour green mango, daikon radish, onion, scallions, cabbage, and a vibrant dressing.
Table of Contents
Choosing Green Mangos for Salad
You definitely want to use green (or unripe) mangos in the salad; try to find mangos that are hard. Check out the mango shrimp salad recipe for more info about buying and slicing green mangos! If your mango begins ripening before you are ready to make this salad, you can put it in the fridge to slow down the ripening process.
Ingredients
- Napa cabbage – If you can’t find napa cabbage, you can use any cabbage in its place. Make sure to slice the cabbage very thinly (almost slivered), so it combines easily with the other ingredients.
- Jicama – Clean, crunchy, and refreshing. Peel the jicama and cut it into thin matchsticks.
- Green (unripe) mango – The star of the show! Peel the fruit, cut it away from the center pit, and then cut the mango into slightly thicker matchsticks.
Kitchen Smarts
- Onion – I like red onion in this salad for its color, but you can use whatever color onion you have in your kitchen.
- Scallions – Use both white and green parts (sliced on the diagonal) in this salad, and save some for sprinkling over the finished dish as a garnish.
- Lime – Lime is a central ingredient in Vietnamese cooking, and in this salad, both the lime zest and the juice are used.
- Rice vinegar – You can sub in white wine vinegar or another type. The amount is quite small, so make use of what you have.
- Sugar – In Southeast Asian cooking, a bit of sugar is used to balance out other ingredients with tartness or acidity.
- Fish sauce or vegan fish sauce – Fish sauce is one of the quintessential flavors of Vietnamese cooking, but it is made from anchovies, so it is clearly not vegan. Use vegan fish sauce to keep this salad vegan. You can look for vegan fish sauce (called nuac mam chay) in Asian markets or online. Or, if you are exploring the world of Southeast flavor through a vegan lens, try your hand at making your own vegan fish sauce.
- Garlic – Finely mince the garlic so it blends into the dressing seamlessly.
- Chile pepper – You can use either a Thai or serrano pepper, thinly sliced. Traditionally, the seeds are left in the pepper, but since that’s where most of the heat is stored, you may want to remove some or all of the seeds for a milder pepper flavor.
- Herbs – Two archetypal herbs used in Vietnamese cooking are included here: fresh Thai (or Asian) basil and mint.
- Chopped roasted peanuts – The nutty, salty crunch of chopped peanuts adds amazing flavor and texture. Notify your guests that there are nuts in the dish to make sure there are no allergies.
Variations and Substitutions
- Daikon or seeded cucumber is a good substitute for the jicama.
- Add in some slivered bell pepper for more crunch and color.
- Use unripe papaya instead of the mango.
- Substitute fresh cilantro in place of either the basil or the mint.
How to Make Vegan Vietnamese Mango Salad
- Combine the fruits and veggies: In a large bowl, combine the cabbage, jicama, mango, onions, and scallions.
- Make the salad dressing: In a small bowl, combine the lime zest and juice, rice vinegar, sugar, fish sauce, garlic, and chili.
- Toss the salad: Pour the dressing over the salad and toss. Add the mint, basil, and peanuts and toss again until well combined.
- Serve: Top the salad with some more sliced scallions and serve immediately.
This recipe was inspired by Andrea Nguyen’s mango salad recipe in her book, Vietnamese Food Any Day. Shrimp crackers and or toasted sesame rice crackers or sheets are typical accompaniments to this salad.
Make Ahead and Storage
You can store leftovers for 2 days in the refrigerator in an airtight container. Even though the vegetables will soften slightly, the flavor will still be fantastic!
If you want to make this salad ahead of time, keep the vegetables and peanuts separate (vegetables in the fridge, peanuts at room temperature). You can store everything for up to 2 days in a sealed container in the fridge. Dress shortly before serving.
What to Serve With Vegan Green Mango Salad
More Asian-Inspired Salads
- Japanese Cucumber Salad
- Vegan Asian Napa Cabbage Slaw
- Asian Kohlrabi and Apple Slaw
- Chicken Satay Salad
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Ingredients
- 2 cups packed thinly sliced napa cabbage
- 1 cup jicama (cut into thin matchsticks; about 1/3 of a large jicama)
- 1 green (unripe) mango (1 pound; peeled and cut into thick matchsticks)
- 1 red onion (halved and thinly sliced)
- 3 scallions (white and green parts, sliced on the diagonal; plus more for serving)
- Finely grated zest and juice of 1 large lime
- 2 tablespoons unseasoned rice vinegar
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce (or vegan fish sauce)
- 1 teaspoon finely minced garlic
- 1 Thai or serrano chili (thinly sliced; see Note)
- 2 tablespoons roughly chopped fresh mint
- 2 tablespoons roughly chopped fresh Thai basil
- ¼ cup chopped roasted peanuts
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine the cabbage, jicama, mango, onions, and scallions.
- In a small bowl, combine the lime zest and juice, rice vinegar, sugar, fish sauce, garlic, and chili.
- Pour the dressing over the salad and toss. Add the mint, basil, and peanuts and toss again until they are well combined. Serve immediately, topped with some more sliced scallions.