Vietnamese Green Mango Salad - Recipe

 
Green mango salad

Green mango (or papaya) salad is addictive. It hits all those sweet, tangy and fresh notes that wake up your palate at the beginning of a meal, or refresh it after a bite of spicy curry. My wife and I have been known to narrow down our selection of Vietnamese restaurants purely based on the quality of their mango salad, and to use the leftover dressing to flavor our bun when the house sauce isn't vegetarian.

This salad works best with slightly underripe mangos. You want them to be firm, but not rock hard. The easiest way to cut them is with a mandoline, and it makes for neater presentation. You can do it with a knife too, it just takes a little more time.

I've experimented with different ways to make the dressing without fish sauce. Often a little soy sauce works as an umami-rich substitute, but in this case I like a bit of Chinese sesame oil instead. Not traditional but I think it works very well. I like the dressing to be rather sweet. You should adjust it to balance the particular mangos you are working with.

Vietnamese Green Mango Salad
Vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free
Serves 4

• 1/3 cup lime juice
• 4 tablespoons palm sugar or half white sugar, half light brown
• 2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
• 2 underripe mangos cut into medium batons (see photo)
• 1/2 small red onion, cut into very thin rings and soaked briefly in cold water
• 1 small green chili (Thai bird, or if not handy, jalapeno or serrano can be fine too) (optional)
• 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
• 1 handful cilantro or mint leaves (or a mixture)

1. If using palm sugar, crush first in mortar and pestle. It may help to microwave a bit and/or moisten. Combine the lime juice, sugar, ginger, salt, and sesame oil. Shake well to dissolve the sugar. Taste and adjust the balance of flavors. It should be fairly sweet.
2. Just before serving, combine the dressing with the mango, red onion, green chili, most of the sesame seeds and most of the herbs.
3. Garnish with the remaining sesame seeds and herbs.

Jicama, Orange and Radish Salad - Recipe

 

When I serve a filling entree, I like to have a refreshing salad. It offers a nice contrast, makes the meal a little lighter, and cuts the fattiness of the main dish. Here is a simple version, dressed only with fresh orange jucie, that goes great with Mexican and other Latin-American meals. You can work on it while your entree finishes cooking, or it is a great task to give to a friendly volunteer. Don't forget to pass them a cerveza!

If you haven't had jicama (pronounced hee-come-uh) before, you are in for a treat. The texture is crisp like an apple and a little sweet. I believe there are uses for it cooked, but I've only used them for salads. They are surprisingly easy to find in the specialty section of fairly average grocery stores, and of course you can find them at Mexican markets.

Jicama, Orange and Radish Salad
Vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free
Serves 4 as a little side dish

• 1/2 jicama peeled and cut into 1/4" x 1/4" x 2" batons
• 1 big handful radishes, trimmed and cut into quarters
• 4 valencia oranges, cut into supremes (segments without the membrane, see this post for more discussion and another use), juice reserved
• handful of cilantro leaves, roughly torn
• salt
• black pepper

1. Combine the jicama, radishes, orange segments and cilantro with a big pinch of salt and several hearty grinds of pepper.
2. Add 1/4 cup of the orange juice and toss lightly.
3. Taste and adjust seasoning.

Warm Fava Bean (Ful) Salad with Tamarind Dressing - Recipe

 
Warm Fava Bean Salad with Tamarind Dressing

Dried fava beans (aka ful or fool) come in several shapes and sizes; the kind you want for this salad are small and round, about the size of a chickpea, not lima bean shaped. The most typical preparation for them is ful mudammas. For today's dish, I used them in a warm salad spiked with tamarind and Aleppo peper, two flavors typical of Syrian cuisine.

Tamarind is best known for its use in Southeast Asian dishes, like Indian rasam and sambar. It lends its tart, fruity flavor to some versions of Pad Thai as well. Apparently it is also popular in Syria, where it was no doubt brought via the ancient trade routes.

Tamarind is the pulp from a seed-pod that grows on a tropical tree of the same name. You can buy the whole pods, or just the pulp and seeds compressed into a brick, or a fully prepared concentrate. The first two forms probably taste a little better but they require a lot of work, hydrating the pulp with boiling water and then forcing it through a sieve to remove strings and seeds. Personally, I use the Tamicon brand of concentrate. Call me lazy, but it means a salad like this can come together in ten minutes.

I served this with a meal of mujadara, roasted cauliflower, tahineh sauce (prepared tahini with garlic and olive oil), and pita bread. 

Warm Fava Bean (Ful) Salad with Tamarind Dressing
Serves 6 as a side dish
Vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free

• 2 15 oz. cans cooked fava beans (ful), drained and rinsed - Sahara is a good brand
• 2 stalks celery, finely diced
• 1/2 small white onion, finely diced
• 1 tablespoon Tamicon brand tamarind concentrate
• 1 tablespoon boiling water
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon or more Aleppo pepper, or substitute 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
• 1 cup loosely packed parsley leaves, chopped but reserve a few for garnish

1. Combine the beans, celery and onion and warm gently in a saucepan or the microwave.
2. Combine the tamarind paste and boiling water and stir until liquified. Drizzle in the olive oil, whisking continuously. Whisk in the salt and aleppo pepper. Taste and adjust the seasoning. It should be rather tart.
3. Mix the dressing and the minced parsley into the beans. Let sit five minutes and then give a final taste, adding more salt or Aleppo pepper as needed.
4. Garnish with the reserved parsley leaves and serve.