Mango Margarita Salad

This summery salad is light, crisp and refreshing.  The combination of sweet, delicious mangos, cilantro and mint, tossed with fresh squeezed lime juice and soya sauce, together creates a wonderful summer salad that resembles the much loved Margarita! And we all know how we love a good margarita at some point during our summer holidays, so why not make a salad with similar ingredients?! Pair this salad with grilled salmon or chicken and you have a delicious and nutritious summer meal.

First, let’s start with making sure your lettuce is crisp!  We use iceberg lettuce in this recipe because of it’s ability to be juicy and crispy.  To ensure crispy lettuce, simply chop up lettuce in bite size pieces and place in an ice cold water bath. Let lettuce sit in the water for at least 5-10 minutes. Drain water and spin lettuce and then you will have crisp, crunchy lettuce.

Next assemble the dressing ingredients.  Place them in a small saucepan and heat through.  This will only take a minute or two.  You just want to dissolve the honey and heat through the garlic and ginger.  Once heated through, remove from heat and let cool completely before adding to salad.

Finally, put remaining salad ingredients in a bowl and toss with the cooled dressing.  You likely won’t need all the dressing, so add according to taste!

We had a little fresh kale, (from the garden), so we also added that to the salad.  This is a delicious salad and really did remind us of sipping margaritas on a sandy beach somewhere hot!

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Mango Margarita Salad

Fresh, crisp, summer salad

Course Dressing, lunch, Main Course, Salad

Cuisine American

Keyword avocado, cilantro, lime, mango

Ingredients

• 1 avocado peeled and chopped
• 1 mango chopped
• 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
• 1/2 cucumber, julienned (small strips)
• 1/4 cup chopped mint
• 1/2 head iceberg lettuce
• 1/4 cup sweet onion slivered
• 1/2 cup chopped roasted hazelnuts or almonds
• 1 garlic clove minced
• 1 tbsp fresh grated ginger
• pinch red chili flakes
• 3 tbsp soya sauce
• 1 tsp honey
• 3 tbsp lime juice, freshly squeezed
• 2 tbsp olive oil

Instructions

1. Combine the garlic, ginger, pepper flakes, honey, lime juice, soya sauce and olive oil in a small saucepan. Heat through briefly and remove from heat to let cool. This will be the dressing for the salad.

   For crisp, crunchy lettuce, I chop the lettuce in bite size pieces and place lettuce in an ice cold water bath. Let lettuce sit in the water for at least 5-10 minutes. Drain water and spin lettuce and then you will have crisp, crunchy lettuce.

   Meanwhile, place all other ingredients in a bowl and toss with dressing. (A sprinkling of feta cheese would be a nice addition too! )