Cucumber and Mango Salad with Sweet Chili Dressing – Recipe
Cucumber and Mango Salad with Sweet Chili Dressing
We always have Thai sweet chili sauce around the house. It is more sweet and tangy than spicy, but with just enough kick to add some interest. Sure, you could make it yourself, but the beauty is in having it in your refrigerator for those moments when you need to turn some basic ingredients into dinner in minutes. It can be glazed on tofu, used as a table condiment, or, like in this recipe, made into a quick salad dressing.
This salad is great when you need something to cut the richness of a coconut-milk curry, or the saltiness of a stir fry. It comes together in just a few minutes if you have developed some knife skills. VeganYumYum has a nice post on a quick way to cut a mango into cubes.
A more authentic Thai version of this would undoubtedly feature fish sauce. You can roughly approximate that umami hit with a teaspoon of soy sauce or shiitake mushroom broth if you are so inclined.
Other ideas: toasted and roughly crushed peanuts, papaya, pineapple, thinly sliced shallots, fresh ginger, shiso, sesame oil.
Cucumber and Mango Salad with Sweet Chili Sauce
Vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free (check the chili sauce) / Serves 4 / 10 minutes
- 6 tablespoons sweet chili sauce
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
- 2 ripe mangoes, peeled and cut into 1/2" cubes
- 1 big English cucumber, cut into 1/8" slices
- 1 handful mint leaves
- 1 handful cilantro leaves
- toasted sesame seeds
- Whisk together the sweet chili sauce, rice vinegar and Kosher salt.
- Toss the dressing with the mango, cucumber, mint, and cilantro.
- Serve on cold platter, garnished with the sesame seeds.
Looks delicious! I will try it!
This looks fabulous,and so simple!I especially love that it’s oil-free! 🙂
Corinne
That’s just the sort of thing I need and, as luck would have it, I am just eating grilled mango on toast (topped with a little cream cheese and have half a mango over. Roll on dinner time!
This is a beautiful site that you’ve got, Michael. I’ll make sure to check it out often.
And this salad is just perfect. The flavor combination is one of my favorites. Very nice.
Mango, cucumbers and chili sauce sounds like the perfect combination. Looking forward to making this!
Oh yummy! Mangoes and cucumbers are two of my favorite foods but I would have never thought to put them together!
wow.. simple but exotic..now to get some mangoes…
Clever flavor combo… Now I’m sitting under my mango tree “willing” it to ripen…. I don’t have the patience…. I may have to go to the store!
Here in New Zealand mangos are so expensive that when I get my hands on one I just eat it as it is!
I have another giveaway on my blog, in case you are interested 🙂
http://alessandrazecchini.blogspot.com/2011/02/saint-valentines-day-heart-sushi-and.html
good luck!
Mmmm.. delicious Mango salad!
I added you to my blog roll.
http://easyvegetarianrecipes.topwebreview.com
interesting how will be cucumber and mango tasted together
This (along with the truffled-sheeps-lik-cheese crostini, and some baked acorn squash) was tonight’s dinner at our place. Everyone loved it. The use of mint is inspired. And making mango hedgehogs was really fun. This is one of those rare dishes where it looks as good when *I* make it as when the Michael does. 🙂
One small quibble: I found the English cuke surprisingly flavorless (maybe it’s just the season…dunno). I think I’d prefer an american cuke’s flavor here.
so very tasty! i made this for dinner (cut the cucumber in thick matchsticks) along with some pan fried tofu marinated in the same dressing (plus a bit of tamari, ginger, and sesame oil) all on top of some rice vermicelli and shredded lettuce and some chopped salty peanuts over everything. sort of a fast viet bun type dish that is excellent for a weeknight. thanks for the inspiration!
Your version sounds great! I've got another version of bun here if you are interested: https://herbivoracious.com//2009/10/vietnamese-vermicelli-bun-with-ginger-grapefruit-sauce-recipe.html .
Thanks,
Michael
Made this again last night, with the addition of a very ripe canteloupe. It changes the nature of the disk a bit, but worked really well.
Absolutely delicious! Refreshing and satisfying. I thought I had a lemon cucumber, which turned out to be a Korean melon, but that was a fine bridge between the mango and cucumber. Outstanding!
Wow, that sound good too!
Hi Michael, What a great idea to use sweet chili sauce as the dressing for a mango cucumber salad. Thanks! I usually use Persian cucumbers instead of the English cucumber. Do you think one is better than the other?
I love a good, flavorful Persian cuke — totally appropriate in this dish!