Mango Salsa!

Hi Fran!

Ever since I can remember, I have loved mangoes. Loved them because they are so refreshing while at the same time so indulgent. The sunny  yellowish orange color of the interior, rich texture of its flesh and aroma fill my every sense with sunshine. Where I grew up, it was one of the most tropical fruits available, and always was a real treat to savor. But all that aside, one of my favorite parts was that it turned into this really fun to eat treat, a little cubic porcupine of a fruit 🙂

Another thing I really love, is salsa. My roomie Haley’s homemade salsa, was a revelation! Seriously, it has become very difficult for me to buy store-bought salsa ever since. But, let’s face it, I can only make 1 style of salsa so often before getting bored right?

RIGHT!! Enter mango salsa into my life. It is good on everything, from quesadillas, toast, to grilled chicken! My personal fave(our fave) is toasted multi-grain bread, with cream cheese and smoked salmon all topped with mango salsa!! Its colors are so happy and bright. Although it is super easy and quick to make, the chopping is pretty essential, in this recipe, you want to have beautifully perfect dicing as it really adds to the visual appeal of your amazingly flavorful salsa!

makes about 2-3 cups of salsa

INGREDIENTS

• 1 ripe mango (finely diced)
• 1 orange bell pepper (very finely diced)
• 2 green chillies (or less if you don’t like heat) (very finely diced)
• 1/2 red onion (very finely diced)
• 2 limes’ juice
• 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
• small handful of chopped cilantro (coriander) {optional}

DIRECTIONS

1. Dice all the bell pepper, chillies and onion very finely.
2. Stand the mango on its side (so that the narrowest part is pointing up) cut straight through at about 1 cm from the middle(so that you do not hit the giant pit in the middle). Cut the other side similarly.
3. With a sharp pointy knife score the 2 mango disks scoring the flesh in a grid pattern. Invert the disk, so that all the perfect little cubes pop out as in the photo above. Carefully cut off your perfect cubes of mango.
4. Place all diced ingredients a bowl, add lime juice, rice wine vinegar and cilantro and toss carefully to leave the mango pieces intact.
5. Refrigerate for at least 15 minutes to let the flavors marinate. Serve chilled!

You can swap out the mango for peaches, pineapple, melon or any other fleshy fruit you fancy.