green mango salad

in a desperate bid to seem like i'm a healthy eater (as opposed to being a healthy=hearty eater), i give you a green mango salad. mainly because i have a lot of green mangoes about, but also because in this hot weather a lot of us are experiencing, it's a light, refreshing repast. you'll find various forms of this salad throughout southeast asia, but with the basic ingredients intact: julienned green mango, cilantro, basil or mint, shallots or onions. the dressing is made with any number of ingredients, but the main idea is to achieve a balance of the following flavours: sweet, spicy, salty, and sour.

the salad above is composed of julienned green mango, cilantro, thai basil leaves, tiny cherry tomatoes, shallots, and lightly sauteed squid. i used some of the dressing to marinate the squid beforehand, but i'm not sure if it made a difference. i think next time i'll try grilling the squid over charcoal for a little smokiness. you can skip the seafood or use prawns, mussels, or even thinly slice grilled flank steak as a meatier alternative.

just as the salad, you can use whatever you like in the dressing. i used freshly squeezed lime juice, fish sauce, palm sugar, finely chopped thai bird chili peppers, and finely chopped shallots. i heated up the ingredients to help dissolve the sugar and mellow out the flavours a bit, but that's entirely unnecessary. just get to a flavour to you like, pour it on the mixed salad, and enjoy.