The Happy Home Cook: Mango/Grapefruit Salad for All Seasons

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On our UP Area 1 e-group, ages ago, we had been exchanging recipes.  Bong Daza vaguely cited a salad of grapefruit and mango which he tossed together with a bagoong dressing.  I was fearful that the bagoong's perfume would not go well with my Western guests' palates, so I kept the grapefruit/mango combination and added my own touches of taste and color with the red onion, pomegranate grains, chives and above all the kaffir lime leaves.

Mango/Grapefruit Salad (Photo courtesy of Ofeila Gelvezon-Tequi)

Ingredients

2-3 unripe mangoes, the greenest and the hardest you can find
4-5 grapefruits.  I chose those whose flesh have different "colours".
1 red onion, sliced thinly.
1 pomegranate. Open to get the grains.
Chives. Chopped.
1-2 fresh kaffir lime leaves. Cut as thinly as possible with scissors.

Procedure

Cut up the mangoes into cubes or preferably in sexier losanges (diamond-cut).

Peel the grapefruits and extract the flesh from the wedges, keeping them as intact as possible.

Slice the grapefruits then add the diced mangoes.  Mix in the sliced red onions and the pomegranate grains.  Add the chopped chives and kaffir lime leaves, mixing them just before serving.

The fruits may be prepared ahead and kept refrigerated.  Chives & lime leaves are always added at the last minute.

This recipe requires no cooking, no complicated culinary technique, contains no oils associated often with salads, is also gluten-free.  The salad can be seasoned with rock salt, lemon-flavoured falksalt or the susyal fleur de sel.

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Marc and Ofeila Gelvezon-Tequi

Acclaimed artist Ofelia Gelvezon-Tequi happily lives and paints in Limeuil. She exhibits her works internationally, the latest show being in New York at the Philippine Center in October 2015. 

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