My favorite way to eat fruit. I adapted this recipe from an episode of Bobby Flay's "Brunch @ Bobby's". I typically use mango as the base of this salad, but it works equally well with peaches or other firm stone fruit. Ginger simple syrup give it an unexpected spice and sweetness, mint chiffonade lends a refreshing herbal pop, and sliced almonds provide the texture that fruit salads (in my opinion) always need. Add other tropical fruit and berries of your choice and you have a huge salad that works well as breakfast or a snack.
Ingredients
3 medium to large mangos, peeled and sliced into chunks
6 small to medium kiwi fruit, peeled and sliced
1 pint of strawberries, hulled and quartered
1 pint of blueberries or black raspberries
One 4 oz. package of sliced almonds
1/4 cup of sugar
1/4 cup of water
1 tsp. of lemon juice
One 3-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and sliced
Handful of fresh mint, chopped
Directions: Prepare the ginger simple syrup first by peeling and slicing fresh ginger. Put to the side. In a small pot, bring the water, sugar, ginger, and a teaspoon of lemon juice to a boil and stir until all the sugar is dissolved. Remove from the heat and refrigerate until cold. Since I make this salad a lot, I typically buy large pieces of ginger and quadruple the sugar, water, and lemon juice to make a large batch of the syrup. It keeps well in the fridge for several months.
While the syrup is cooling, cut up all of the fruit and add it to a large mixing bowl. If you are using one cutting cutting board, it is a good idea to wipe and dry it after dicing the fruit but before chopping the mint. These types of fruit have a lot of natural moisture and might make a small mess as you cut them up. Not to mention that wet mint is hard to chop. Mint is also difficult to chop with a dull knife, so make sure you are using a chef's knife with a really sharp blade. This will not only expedite the fruit-slicing, but will ensure that you do not crush and ruin your mint. I prefer to "chiffonade" my mint, which just means to cut it into small, thin ribbons. To do this, take a small handful of mint leaves (about 10-15), stack them up, roll them up, and keeping you knife close to the board, thinly slice the roll. Add the mint to the mixing bowl.
When it comes to the sliced almonds, you can find a small bag of sliced almonds in the baking aisle of your grocery store. I like a crunchy salad, so I add the entire 4 oz. package to the bowl. You don't have to use as much or, if you are allergic to nuts, you can eliminate them all together. It's really the ginger and the mint that make this salad anyway.
And speaking of the ginger, by now, your ginger syrup should be cooled (it usually takes me 30-45 minutes to chop all of the fruit, mangoes take the longest, so I start with them). Remove it from the fridge, strain, then discard the sliced ginger. I love the spice of this syrup, so I use the entire bowl (per the sizes listed above), which amounts to about 4 tablespoons of the syrup. Use a large spoon to gently combine the ingredients and evenly distribute the syrup, almonds, and mint. You can chill it in the fridge or serve immediately. This only keeps about 3 days max in the fridge. These fruit tend to release a lot of their natural water, making the salad soupy the longer it sits. While the salad is still edible, this also causes the strawberries to discolor and unpleasant to look at. If you're concerned about the size of the salad and how long it will keep, I would cut the recipe in half.
Ingredients
3 medium to large mangos, peeled and sliced into chunks
6 small to medium kiwi fruit, peeled and sliced
1 pint of strawberries, hulled and quartered
1 pint of blueberries or black raspberries
One 4 oz. package of sliced almonds
1/4 cup of sugar
1/4 cup of water
1 tsp. of lemon juice
One 3-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and sliced
Handful of fresh mint, chopped
Directions: Prepare the ginger simple syrup first by peeling and slicing fresh ginger. Put to the side. In a small pot, bring the water, sugar, ginger, and a teaspoon of lemon juice to a boil and stir until all the sugar is dissolved. Remove from the heat and refrigerate until cold. Since I make this salad a lot, I typically buy large pieces of ginger and quadruple the sugar, water, and lemon juice to make a large batch of the syrup. It keeps well in the fridge for several months.
While the syrup is cooling, cut up all of the fruit and add it to a large mixing bowl. If you are using one cutting cutting board, it is a good idea to wipe and dry it after dicing the fruit but before chopping the mint. These types of fruit have a lot of natural moisture and might make a small mess as you cut them up. Not to mention that wet mint is hard to chop. Mint is also difficult to chop with a dull knife, so make sure you are using a chef's knife with a really sharp blade. This will not only expedite the fruit-slicing, but will ensure that you do not crush and ruin your mint. I prefer to "chiffonade" my mint, which just means to cut it into small, thin ribbons. To do this, take a small handful of mint leaves (about 10-15), stack them up, roll them up, and keeping you knife close to the board, thinly slice the roll. Add the mint to the mixing bowl.
When it comes to the sliced almonds, you can find a small bag of sliced almonds in the baking aisle of your grocery store. I like a crunchy salad, so I add the entire 4 oz. package to the bowl. You don't have to use as much or, if you are allergic to nuts, you can eliminate them all together. It's really the ginger and the mint that make this salad anyway.
And speaking of the ginger, by now, your ginger syrup should be cooled (it usually takes me 30-45 minutes to chop all of the fruit, mangoes take the longest, so I start with them). Remove it from the fridge, strain, then discard the sliced ginger. I love the spice of this syrup, so I use the entire bowl (per the sizes listed above), which amounts to about 4 tablespoons of the syrup. Use a large spoon to gently combine the ingredients and evenly distribute the syrup, almonds, and mint. You can chill it in the fridge or serve immediately. This only keeps about 3 days max in the fridge. These fruit tend to release a lot of their natural water, making the salad soupy the longer it sits. While the salad is still edible, this also causes the strawberries to discolor and unpleasant to look at. If you're concerned about the size of the salad and how long it will keep, I would cut the recipe in half.
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