We started our Whole30 the day we left the Keys, but that doesn’t mean we indulged too much while visiting Captain Tom and Susan. We spent most of our days eating fresh fish, caught right off the back of the Urban Renewal. The last night of our visit, we decided to leave the fish to the Captain, but prep the rest of the meal ourselves, using fresh and local ingredients. Enter Dallas’ on-the-spot creation – Summerland Mango Salsa.
The key to making fresh, light, delicious salsa can be summarized in two words… Vegetable. Chopper. Spending an hour dicing and slicing would discourage many from trying this recipe, but a kitchen tool that cuts your cutting time in half means more salsa and less time over the cutting board. We like this large sized chopper from Williams Sonoma. It’s not very expensive ($30), and it does a great job turning large chunks of onion, tomato and mango into salsa sized pieces in one smooth movement.
Here’s the recipe below, but feel free to add your own ingredients – fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices to taste. The beauty is that once you combine all these flavors, you literally cannot make a bad tasting dish. And if you make a triple batch, it keeps in the fridge for at least a few days. We threw our salsa on top of blackened mahi-mahi and yellowtail snapper on a bed of fresh Bibb lettuce, but this dish goes well with fish, chicken, steak, and even eggs. Super fresh and Whole30-approved!
Summerland Mango Salsa
- 3 ripe mango
- 1 red pepper
- 1 orange pepper
- 2 jalapeno peppers
- 1 serrano pepper
- 1 anaheim sweet pepper
- 1 sweet onion
- 6 tomatoes
- 1/2 jicama
- 3 garlic cloves
- Lime juice (3 limes)
- 1 tbsp EVOO
- 1 bunch cilantro
- Cumin
- Salt and pepper
Chop mango, peppers, onion, tomatoes and jicama into small salsa-sized cubes, combine in a large bowl. Mince or press garlic, add to bowl, mix. Squeeze limes over bowl, add EVOO, and mix. Season with cumin, salt and pepper to taste. Add most of chopped cilantro and lightly mix just before serving. Save some cilantro to top each individual dish.
Summerland Mango Salsa, on blackened mahi-mahi
Yum! My hubby & I make a huge tub of this weekly, only we use avocado and no EVOO. This week, I think he added a li’l fresh pineapple to the mix. We eat it over everything, including our egg muffins. It’s fabulous!!!
Yum! Can’t wait to try this one. Unless you guys are coming to Maryland/Delaware anytime soon:)
I will testify to the taste of Summerland Mango Salad and the value of the Vegetable Chopper. I am a knife man at heart and resist stuff like choppers, but the slicing and dicing for large portions of things like Summerland Salsa does become tedious and messy (not to mention occasionally hard on the fingers
. M&D sent a chopper to us after they left. Yes Melissa, I DO use it. And YES it really does make short(er) work out of prep. Thanks again!
The Summerland Salsa is awesome but if you are time/ingredients constrained a short version of this is mango chunks, diced onion, add a little fresh lime juice. Chill for an hour or two and just before serving add in some diced Jalapeno pepper. Serve it as a side with sweet to mild sauteed fish or any mild meat (chicken, veal). The flavors play really well on the taste buds.
This looks delicious! I will be adding this to my list of recipes to try this week!
That looks deeeeeeeeelishhh!! I def have to start experimenting with cooking. I am a pretty basic dude when it comes to my food. Broiled or grilled steak with some balck pepper, onion powder and garlic powder, med rare with a Veg. Nice and simple. I’m very easy to please when it comes to food.
Yum! Going to try it this weekend. Any tips on how to cook the mahi-mahi? I know it says blackend, but in a pan or on a grill? Thanks! I’m with Frank when I say my cooking skills are pretty basic too.
J.Spice: You could do it inside on a stove but it smokes like crazy and will wreck a regular pan. I’ve tried it directly on the grill but the heat is just not concentrated enough to blacken without overcooking.
We use a cast iron pan on a gas grill. Fire up the grill on high, put the pan on the grill, close the lid and let it soak for 10 or 15 minutes in the heat. The idea is to get the pan as hot as possible. Put the blackening rub on the fish and sear for a minute (or so) on each side (depending on thickness) with the lid closed. The idea is to not overcook the fish. It should be moist and slightly opaque inside.
I like to use butter in the pan for searing, but EVOO works and I assume that Coconut oil would too. Don’t use too much, it’s not frying. You just want to grease the pan so it wont stick, and you may have to add a bit when you turn the fish.
Now the bad news. If you are doing the Whole30 you have to wait on this. Most blackening rubs contain sugars. The sugars are necessary to crystallize the rub and do add flavors. Without sugars all you have is pepper and maybe some spice. Give this a try instead. This is our favorite way of preparing almost everything we catch except Tuna (and it is Whole30 compliant, yes?).
Coat dried fillets lightly with Herbs De Provence (favorite) or Italian Seasoning and press it in. Put a tablespoon or two of EVOO into a sauté pan, lightly sauté a little garlic until it starts to brown and add the fish. Cook about 3 minutes a side. Again, it should be moist inside, not dry. Serve the fish using some of the pan liquid as a sauce.
Although I never tried it, I HEARD if you add a little butter to the oil/spice mixture in the pan the resulting sauce is (more) perfect for sopping up with slices of French bread.
Thanks Captain Tom!! Can’t wait to give it a try!
Oh my gosh you are kidding me. That looks so damn amazing! I used to print off recipe after recipe after recipe then stopped because I had so many, lol. It has been a while…
But, guess what? This one MUST go to the printer. Ok, its going… NOW! THANKS!!!!