Thai mango salad

Our local Thai restaurant makes an incredible mango salad. I tried to reproduce it once, and I came very close. This salad is nice and fresh and very tasty! You can serve this as a side dish with other Thai recipes, but it's also perfect for a fresh salad to accompany a summer BBQ with burgers, or even steak.

Ingredients:

  • 3 mangos (ripe, but not too much. The mangos need to be quite firm. In fact, if you can find mangos that are JUST before the correct ripeness, that's the best ones to use) .
  • 1 english cucumber.
  • Fresh cilantro.
  • 1/4 large red onion.
  • 2 limes, juiced.
  • 1 teaspoon rice vinegar.
  • 2 teaspoons sugar.
  • Pepper.

Instructions:

  • Peel the mangos and julienne them using a mandolin, and place in a large bowl.
  • As you proceed further, handle everything very carefully because the julienned mango will turn to mush easily, depending on how ripe your mangos were).
  • Julienne the cucumber, using a mandolin and add to the bowl with the mangos.
  • Chop  1/4 of a large red onion in small pieces and add to mango and cucumber .
  • Take a good size handful of cilantro and chop it in large pieces (not too small). Add to bowl.
  • Juice your limes into a small bowl. I find that limes are sometimes not very juicy. It's hard to find the juicy ones. You should end up with about 1/4 cup of lime juice, so if you need to use more limes, go ahead and use more.
  • Add rice vinegar and sugar to the lime juice.
  • Add pepper to taste.
  • Add the dressing (lime, rice vinegar and sugar) to the large bowl with mango, cucumber, onion and cilantro.
  • Mix the dressing very carefully, using your hands, folding the mixture over itself the best you can, without destroying the fragile julienned mango.