I moved to New Westminster this past weekend and I now live 5 minutes away from one of my closest friends, which means she’s going to be at my house more often. It’s great news because I love having someone to cook for. Last night she popped over with a bottle of cold white wine and very kindly made sure my glass didn’t run empty while I made dinner. True friendship.

Anyways, with the nice warm weather we’ve been having it seemed like a good night for something light, and mango’s were on sale the other day so that kind of made the decision for me. Mango’s are amazing so I was more than happy to fight with mango pits. I always thought by now I’d be able to figure out how to cut around the pit properly, but I still end up leaving meat on the mango or somehow just hacking it up. HOWEVER I did learn this super cool trick to peel a mango – and I’m sure you’ve all seen it on the internet by now – BUT you take your slice of mango and using a glass you hold the mango against the lip of the glass in between the flesh and the peel, drag it down with your hand and the drinking glass peels the mango! I feel like I didn’t do a good job explaining it so here’s a link to a video so you can see it for yourself! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0F9-Nkj3Bb4

How cool is that? Super easy and a lot less messy (I think). Now you can peel sweet delicious fruit in seconds!

I really do love mango’s though. It makes anything you put it on taste tropical, sweet, and colourful. They’re also full of vitamins so even if you blend them with rum and coconut (my personal favourite use for mango), it’s still technically healthy.

Okay – but this salad is pretty delicious. It makes a perfect light, summer dinner, or a nice light lunch. The dressing is refreshing, the noodles are filling, and it’s full of crunchy veggies and sweet, juicy mango. Kayli likes chicken, so I did cook up some soy ginger chicken to top it with, but if you don’t put the chicken on then this could easily be a great vegan or vegetarian dinner!

It’s also wonderful because it’s served cold, so you can make it ahead of time – perfect for busy nights or when it’s too warm out to eat something hot! And you can use whatever veggies you have handy – peppers, cucumbers, celery – if you have it, include it! The dressing could also double as a marinade for meat or grilled veggies in the summer time. Double duty dressings are where it’s at. One more thing, I used capellini noodles, but use whatever long, thin noodles you have in your pantry! Rice noodles, vermicelli, angel hair, or soba noodles would work well here.

This pairs perfectly with crisp white wine, which isn’t included in my recipe below, but it’s kind of just an unofficial ingredient.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is mango no. 5! *cue Lou Bega music*

Mango Noodle Salad

Dressing

1/2 cup chopped mango
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup sesame oil
Juice of 1 lime
1 tbsp oil
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 cloves garlic
1 tbsp minced ginger
t tbsp honey or maple syrup

Salad

2 cups mango, thinly sliced
1 1/2 cup radishes, thinly sliced
1 1/2 cups cucumber, thinly sliced
1 carrot, thinly sliced
1/4 cup green onion, thinly sliced
1/2 cup cilantro
1/2 cup basil
15 – 20 ounces, long thin noodles (cavetelli, soba, angel hair etc)

To make the dressing, put all ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth. Put in fridge to chill while you prep the salad.

Cook noodles as per package directions (this is a no brainer, just boil em up for a few minutes until they’re al dente, pretty boiler plate stuff here). Drain and let cool. Oh hey, guys don’t rinse your noodles, please. When you do that it rinses off the starch which means the dressing (or sauce in other cases) won’t stick to the noddles and it will be a mess. Just leave them to cool on their own in the colander- promise me, okay?

Chop mango, radishes, cucumber, carrot, green onion, cilantro and basil. Toss with dressing and cooled noodles (that you didn’t rinse). Chill in fridge until you’re ready to serve. Serve as a main if you’re doing no meat, or serve as a side.

I’m pretty sure this will feed like 4-6 people, easily! Keep leftovers for lunch!