Similar to salads in the West, these dishes often have a souring agent, usually lime juice, and feature the addition of fresh herbs and other greens in their preparation.

Specialised khao tom kui (plain rice congee) restaurants also serve a wide variety of Thai salads of the yam type as side dishes.

The main ingredient can be raw, pickled, fermented, sun-dried, smoked, steamed, parboiled, boiled, grilled, baked, stir-fried, deep-fried, or combinations.

Depending on the salad, anything from crispy fried onions, crunchy nuts, or seeds to toasted coconut flakes can also be added to the mix to enhance the flavours, colours and textures.

After one look at the menu of a khao tom kui (plain rice congee) restaurant, it is clear that nearly any ingredient that one can imagine can be used to make a yam-style salad.

These yam that are eaten with plain rice congee tend to remain more simple in their preparation, containing only the basic "dressing" of lime juice, raw onion or shallot, chillies, sugar, and fish sauce in addition to the main ingredient, with only some celery added where needed.

The basic dressing for a som tam-style salad contains garlic, palm sugar, lime juice, bird's-eye chillies, dried shrimp and fish sauce.

[17] Another traditional salad from northern Thailand is tam khai mot daeng, made with the eggs of the red ant.

[18] A tam style salad from northern Thailand that is also famous in the rest of Thailand, is tam som-o (pomelo salad), in which the slightly pounded flesh of a pomelo is mixed with garlic, sliced lemongrass, and a thick pungent black paste (nam pu) made from boiling down the juices and meat of rice-paddy crabs.

The spicy, sweet, and very tart style of lap from Laos and northeastern Thailand is made with a dressing of lime juice, fish sauce, ground dried chillies, sugar, and, very importantly, khao khua, ground dry roasted glutinous rice which gives this salad its specific nutty flavour.

In addition to the fish sauce, lime juice, chillies, and shallots or onions, a phla style salad will also always contain large amounts of thinly sliced lemongrass and mint.