Mango Basil Salad

This is my favorite time of year. Schools are out for the summer, temperatures are reaching just high enough to take a dip in the neighborhood pool and your trusty roadside fruit stand is yet again open for business. The summer season brings an abundance of fresh produce, and for me, food lover and culinary enthusiast, all that good fresh produce not only gets my taste buds buzzing but my creative juices flowing as well.

I like to keep things interesting. Yes, of course eating is a necessary and vital act. So why not make it fun, delicious, different and yes of course nutritious. It’s time to change how we think about food. Eating is not just an act we partake in three times a day, but an experience. We first eat with our eyes, taking in all the different colors and textures displayed before us. Next, we might hear the sizzle of a fried egg or the squirt of juice that seeps from a perfectly roasted pork loin when sliced. Then we smell the various aromas wafting before us, and perhaps we become entranced in this familiar smell which takes us back to our grandmother’s kitchen. And lastly, we taste. We taste the creaminess of an avocado, the juicy burst from a vine ripe tomato, or the crisp refreshing bite of a slice of watermelon. Eating, is an experience.

So as I find myself standing in the produce section at my local grocery store today and I begin to eat with my eyes. It doesn’t take long before my eyes land on a mound of mangos (and if anyone knows me they know I love me a nice juicy mango). As my eyes drift upward, I notice that the sign says fifty cents each. Fifty cents each, what a deal! I load my basket up with mangos, one particularly ripe one for I know this will be my afternoon snack.

Four o’clock rolls around, my lunch is long gone and that mango sits on my kitchen counter taunting me. I can wait no longer. As I’m peeling and slicing meticulously around the large pit of my mango I’m suddenly not satisfied with just my mango. How can I make this a bit more exciting to eat? Now, this being a snack and the fact that I’m hungry now I don’t want to have to put too much effort into this. Earlier in the day I noticed that the basil in the garden was doing exceptionally well and that I had an abundance of it (time to make some pesto!). So, in the heat of my mango snack crisis I remember my basil and I think, “is it possible for mango and basil to be good together?” And this is how mango basil salad came about. Two of my most favorite ingredients together in harmony at last. You get the sweetness from the mango, and that peppery earthy bite from the basil.

While I just ate it as a snack, I highly recommend making it your new side dish for summer barbeques. Pair is with a nice juicy steak or a filet of tilapia. You’ll be bringing fresh new flavors to the table, keeping you and your friends always on their toes. Don’t be afraid to make unusual pairings. You might surprise yourself and make the unexpected . . . extraordinary. Be inspired by this season and its plethora of produce it has to offer.