Recipe: Chef Sarab Kapoor's Spicy Thai Mango Salad

Salads that are simple to toss together are excellent in summer, because no cooking is required.

When you are craving something light fo lunch or dinner, there is nothing like having a salad.

Chef Sarab Kapoor's refreshing and crunchy Thai Mango Salad gets its khatta-meetha flavour from the partially ripe mangoes and palm sugar/jaggery.

'Easy-going and accessible recipes that accommodated individual taste preferences and encouraged a more relaxed approach to measurements,' is how Chef Kapoor describes her recipes.

Mango Salad

Serves: 2-3

Ingredients

• 2 semi raw mangoes, peeled and cut into thin, long strips or julienned
• 1 cucumber, julienned or cut into thin sticks
• 1 carrot, peeled and julienned
• Handful corn flakes
• 1 tbsp palm sugar or jaggery powder
• ½ tbsp tamarind paste
• 2 tbsp peeled peanuts, roasted
• 2-3 fresh red or green chillies, slit at the centre and cut into long strips
• 3-4 cherry tomatoes, cut into half
• Salt to taste, about ½ tbsp, preferably rock salt
• 1 tbsp chopped pudina or mint leaves, optional
• Small bunch green dhania or coriander or cilantro leaves, to garnish, optional

Method

• In a small bowl mix the palm sugar and tamarind pulp.
  Stir until well-combined and free of lumps.
  Keep aside.
• Place the peeled and julienned mangoes in a large bowl.
  Add the cucumber and the carrot.
  Pour the palm sugar-tamarind mixture over the vegetables and the mangoes.
  Add the chillies, roasted peanuts, salt, cherry tomatoes, mint leaves and toss lightly.
  Garnish with the corn flakes, chopped coriander leaves, if you prefer, and serve.

Editor's Note: This Thai salad uses Thai green mangoes, which are sour and mildly sweet too. You could use semi-ripe Indian varieties like Totapuri. The quantity of mango strips should be a little more than the quantity of the julienned cucumber and carrot together.

The salad is finished with something crispy, like Thai crackers, corn flakes, or honey-roasted cashews seasoned with sesame seeds.

The palm sugar-tamarind dressing can be made more complex and you can add a dash of coconut milk, fish sauce, 1 tsp grated ginger, a little lime juice, a pinch black pepper powder too.

Chef Sarab Kapoor lives in Singapore and is a television personality, cookbook author and culinary consultant.

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