A Sweet, Simple Salad For Hot Days

I live in North Central Texas, where temperatures soar above 100 degrees in the summer. Nobody wants to cook when it’s that hot!

This simple summer salad combines ripe, sweet mangoes and black beans with your choice of grain, and your favorite salsa. At my house, everything but the mango is generally in the cupboards, ready to use. All I have to do is remember to grab a ripe mango when I’m at the grocery store, and this salad is halfway done.

To keep the house cool, I generally make whichever grain I want to use in my rice cooker. Using a rice cooker instead of the stove keeps the heat down to a minimum, and makes cooking grains a breeze. If I’m very lucky, I make a double batch of rice for dinner the night before, and chill the leftovers, to make the preparation go even faster.

How To Choose a Mango

Before becoming vegan, I was more or less an apple/orange/banana fruit eater. Mangoes weren’t even on my radar. I had to learn how to shop for them, and what to do with them once I got them home. They’re a little odd, as fruit goes, but well worth conquering.

To choose a mango that’s ready to use in your salad, think of how you choose a peach, or an avocado. The mango should be a little soft to the touch, but not so soft that the flesh collapses when you pick it up. When you find one that feels right, smell the stem end of the mango. It should smell sweet and fruity, not musty.

Don’t be fooled by the color of your mango. While you might think that green is unripe, and red is ripe, this is not the case. The coloring is not an indicator of ripeness.

If you find that all the mangoes you have to choose from are somewhat hard, you can ripen a mango at home, by leaving it at room temperature. If you’re in a hurry, you can put it in a paper bag to ripen. As soon as it’s soft and sweet-smelling enough, pop it into the refrigerator, where it will keep for several days without ripening as quickly.

How To Cube a Mango

Mangoes have a large, flat pit in the center. To cube a mango, you’ll want to cut on either side of that pit:

• Stand the mango on its end, with the stem pointing upward. You’ll notice that the mango is wider on two sides, and has a sort of ridge in between the fat sides. That ridge is caused by one end of the pit.
• Slice from top to bottom, trying to get your knife as close to the pit as possible, creating three pieces: two fat pieces, filled with mango flesh, and one thin one, with the pit.

Let’s address the two fat, fleshy pieces first:

• Cut through the flesh, but not the skin, to create strips from top to bottom of each piece. This is best done by holding the fat, fleshy piece cupped in your hand. Be careful not to slice through the skin and your hand!
• Make cuts through the mango flesh going crosswise, to create cubes still attached to the skin.
• Push the center of the skin towards the fleshy side, causing the cut pieces to fan outward. Refer to the photo above to see how this should look.
• Cut the cubes from the skin.

The third piece, with the pit in it, often has a little bit of fruit that can be cubed. Remove the ribbon of skin from around the piece, and then cut around the pit, from the outside edge inward. Once you’ve cut all the way around, simply slice the cut fruit away from the pit.

Black Bean & Mango Salad Recipe

Although the recipe uses brown rice, you can easily substitute any grain you have in your pantry. I’ve made this recipe with quinoa, and with millet, and have been very happy with the results. For best results, cook whichever grain you choose ahead of time, and let it cool completely before mixing it into the salad.

Ingredients

• 1 cup brown rice, cooked and cooled
• 1 15 oz can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 large mango, ripe, cubed
• 1/4 cup salsa

Instructions

1. Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl.
2. Chill for several hours, and serve.

Tips

• Serve with warm corn tortillas or corn chips, on a bed of lettuce or greens.
• I usually use mild salsa, but if you prefer more spice, use whichever tomato-based salsa you prefer. I haven’t tried this with salsa verde, or with fruity salsa, so I can’t speak to how well that would work. If you try it, let me know!
• This salad stores well for two or three days in the refrigerator. You may notice some liquid accumulating in the bottom of the bowl over the course of those days. That’s the juice from the mango. Just mix it back into the salad.