Free from: dairy, egg, wheat, gluten, fish, shellfish, peanut, tree nuts, animal, animal by-product, sesame, mustard.

Let me start by saying that I’m very aware that the mangoes in the pictures are quite yellow and not the pale off-yellow typically found in an authentic Thai mango salad. I was deceived when I’d purchased these very unripe mangoes, which by the way, took me forever to find because it’s always the case that when you need something, it magically disappears. You can just imagine my excitement when finally, after scouring all of the grocery stores in my city with no luck {no joke, I really did that}, I thought to visit a local Asian market near my parents’ house. And when I found these beauties, I was over the moon.

That is, until I got home and started peeling the fruit…yellow. Almost golden in colour actually {insert hysterical crying}. The interesting thing though is they were very firm to the touch and tasted quite sour – not to the point where your lips pucker though.

As if I was going to let an impostor green mango deter me from making my mango salad. Sorry there mango, but you don’t know me very well. I however knew you well and you tasted great!

Let me tell you how I was inspired to make this amazing salad. My man told me we were going out for dinner one night back in the summer, to which I happily obliged because sadly it had been a long time since we’d done anything remotely romantic {if only kids appreciated the sacrifices we make for them}. Sofia was still nursing at the time {she was a month shy of 2} but since she also ate solids, it was easy(er) to leave her and Munsur with my mom.

I dolled myself up {back then, looking pretty meant not having dried up slobber on my shirt – thank God those days are past me!} and met my husband at one of our favourite Thai restaurants in the city {if you’re ever in the London area, be sure to try Bangkok Pad Thai, great service and wonderful hospitality. And the food is delish}. We’d ordered appetizers and our main course. Now. Let me tell you all the things that had gone wrong that night. But it was so funny at the same time. You have to laugh at these things or you’ll go crazy. :D

I got my green mango salad and Jaafer got some rice concoction which looked amazing. Ok. So I don’t know about you, but any and every time I eat something spicy, my nose drips; as if it was running (not jogging) a 5 mile marathon. But the funniest is my husband. I’m laughing just thinking about it. Whenever he eats anything remotely spicy, his ears plug up. And it’s all over from there for him. I talk to him, he can’t hear me (or does he pretend..hmm) and I’m dying of laughter at this point because that’s us every time. We get looks from other guests and I’m thinking they’re wondering I want what they’re having! I’m sure that’s what they thought that night….

As if things couldn’t get more embarrassingly funny, my breasts leaked. Any nursing mom will attest to this humiliating, just-want-to-crawl-under-anything-and-hide scenario. The one day I forget to wear protection, that happened. It’s not even that I’d forgotten; I ran out and didn’t get a chance to buy any. I thought I’d be safe for the day, but I clearly wasn’t. As seen by me and the rest of the poor people there that night. To make matters worse, I had a blush pink silk top on. So imagine what milk did to it. I really wish I was making this up. To cap the night off, my mother called to tell me that Sofia wasn’t having it and wanted her ‘mama’. So we ate really quickly and left to get our babies.

Reminiscing on the good times is always fun to do. :)

The salad I always get there is a pure delight to my senses. The platter’s appetizing with its beautiful colours and textures, the mangoes are crisp with a slight sourness to them, the sauce is sweet yet spicy, and the cashews really add the extra bit of crunch and flavour. I had to recreate a similar version at home.

Since the summer and until recently, I have been working on this recipe. Not perfecting it necessarily because I loved how I made it, but it was those darned mangoes. And the funny thing is, I used to find them in abundance…when I wasn’t looking for green mangoes of course.

Because we don’t bring cashews home, I decided I needed to substitute the crunch aspect of the dish, so pomegranate jewels made the cut. And because my mangoes didn’t have the bite needed, I added carrots which I’d julienned to make up for the softer mangoes. If you can find truly unripe mangoes, you probably won’t need the carrots unless you’d still like them in your salad. This recipe will work with any kind of mango, ripened or not. ;)

This is a simple, easy to prepare salad that will have you wishing you’d doubled the recipe.