African Mango Salad
Birmingham, United Kingdom · View all recipes
Overview
Mango and pineapple dressed with fruit juice, served on lettuce and finished with strawberries. It is a fresh fruit salad rather than a savoury one, and it is presented as an accompaniment to a main dish. The page needs a caveat before anything else. Its title says African, but no country, region or tradition is named anywhere in the source, and nothing in the ingredients points to one, mango, pineapple and strawberry are grown and eaten on every continent. The word African here appears to be a label rather than an attribution, and it has been flagged as such rather than dressed up into a heritage that the source does not document. What the combination does have going for it is the contrast it sets up. Ripe mango is soft, dense and sweet; pineapple is fibrous and sharply acidic; strawberry sits between them. Served on lettuce leaves rather than in a bowl, it reads as a starter rather than a dessert, which is the one genuinely considered decision in the recipe. The source gives no quantities at all, every ingredient is listed as a bare name. The amounts below are working proportions rather than anything taken from it, and the source's recommendation of a particular branded mango peeler has not been carried across.
Ingredients
Dietary tags are provided by contributors as a guide, not verified by AFN, and they depend on the products you buy. If you have a serious allergy, check every ingredient yourself. Cooking, allergies and your own judgement
Directions
- 1
Peel and cube the mangoes into a bowl.
- 2
Peel, core and cube the pineapple, and combine it with the mango.
- 3
Blend the apricot nectar or orange juice on its own until smooth, then pour it over the fruit and turn everything over gently so it is lightly coated.
- 4
Arrange the lettuce leaves as cups on plates, or line a serving bowl with them.
- 5
Spoon the dressed fruit into the lettuce.
- 6
Scatter the halved strawberries over the top and serve chilled.
Africook’s Notes
Personal notes from Beatrice Ige- Use fruit that is ripe but still firm. Overripe mango collapses into pulp as soon as it is dressed.
- Cut everything to a similar size so no single fruit dominates a forkful.
- Dress it just before serving. Fruit sitting in juice releases its own liquid and the salad turns watery within the hour.
- Chill the fruit and the plates. A fruit salad served at room temperature loses most of its appeal.
- A squeeze of lime and a few torn mint leaves lift it considerably and stop it reading as one-note sweet.
- The quantities here are working proportions. The source gives no measurements at all, so adjust freely to the fruit you have.
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