I crave mango salad. In fact, it is one of my favourite things. However, I don’t eat it very often as I am afraid of sneaky fish sauce making its way into the otherwise very veggie-friendly salad. I’ve found fish sauce in mango salads one too many times after being assured that the salad would be fish-free, so I’ve come up with the best solution: make it at home!
Of course, making green mango salad at home requires green (unripened) mangoes. When I spied them at my local Asian grocery store, I knew they were coming home to be mango salad!
The best part of this salad? The tangy & spicy lime & hot sauce dressing. To get around the lack of fishy flavour, I’ve used a dash of tamari — just enough to bring a richer depth to the dressing in a fish-friendly way. Even the fish-eating boyfriend enjoys the version of green mango salad, so you’ll be able to feed it to your friends and family without worries.
If you’ve got oodles of time on your hands, practice your knife skills and julienne the mangoes by hand. If you want a quick, weekday supper you can do what I did and pop them (and the red pepper!) through the julienne or slicing disc of your food processor. Soooo fast and easy, and gets you to the fruit that much faster!
This salad would also be great as a veggie burger topping or side-dish if you want to add a little mango to your life!
Vegan Green Mango Salad
Inspired by Smitten Kitchen’s Mango Slaw with Cashews & Mint and The Kitchn’s Thai Green Mango Salad, Serves 4 as a side dish or 2 as a main course.
- 2 green (unripened) mangoes, peeled and julienned (very thinly sliced)
- 1 red onion, thinly sliced
- 1 red pepper, julienned
- 1/4 c. basil, sliced into thin ribbons
- 1/4 c. mint, sliced into thin ribbons
- 2 limes, juiced
- 3 Tbsp. rice vinegar
- 2 tsp. sesame oil
- 2 tsp. tamari or soy sauce
- 1 tsp. chili garlic hot sauce (I used Sriracha)
- 1/4 c. cashews, toasted & chopped coarsely
In a large bowl, combine mango, red onion, red pepper, basil & mint.
In a separate, smaller bowl, make the dressing by combining lime juice, rice vinegar, sesame oil, tamari and hot sauce. Whisk well, and pour the dressing over the salad. Toss to coat.
Top with the toasted cashews, and serve. Eat with great joy, and imagine you’re on a tropical vacation.
Kitchen Operas 
LOL@unharmed fish!!
This sounds really yummy…tho an omnivore (:oD) I still enjoy meatless dishes a few times a week (tho I DO luv my fish!)
Thanks a bunch, Linz!!
Mmmm, love the flavour combo.
I know what you mean about the fish sauce thing – whenever I go out for Japanese, their seaweed salads are always so amazingly tasty & I sometimes suspect the fishy friends are involved. Definitely better to replicate at home with known ingredients, then share it on your blog for all of us to recreate, of course 🙂
Thanks, Katey! Glad to know I’m not the only one in this boat!
Jacquie – I’d be interested to see what you think of it without the fish sauce!