Mango & Rice-Noodle Salad

I LOVE mangoes, and I tend to make a lot of mango salads this time of year. I used to be addicted to this salad combination, because it was so simple and delicious: baby spinach, mango, and toasted pine nuts, topped with a mango vinaigrette, sea salt, black pepper, and green (or white) onions. So simple!

I don’t like it when recipes are discombobulated. You know, making you do this, then that, then this again. Then add that and this and that again. Too much setting aside, or chilling, or warming, or heating, then boiling, and transferring, then adding and removing. Gets on my nerves.

But I wanted to try this recipe from Vegetarian Times, because it was right up my mango alley. The flavor was wonderful and brilliant. The salad looks gourmet perfect. But the recipe was just too all over the place, like I was a dog in an agility run - backwards. I had too much going on all at once: pans/skillets/colanders. So many side bowls of this and that. Forget it.

I want you to enjoy the flavors, like I did. I want you to get full satisfaction, but I can’t send you through this agility run. My job is to give you only that which gets my seal of approval. So I simplifed it and shazam - Scrumpdilly approved!

Mango & Rice-Noodle Salad (simplified from Vegetarian Times)
Serves 4

1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/3 cup fresh lime juice
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 red jalapeño chile, finely chopped

8 oz. dried rice-stick noodle
1/2 cup thinly sliced fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup thinly sliced fresh mint leaves
1/2 English cucumber, halved lengthwise, thinly sliced crosswise
1 cup bean sprouts
1 green onion, thinly sliced
1 large ripe mango, peeled, pitted, and thinly sliced
1/2 cup cilantro leaves
1/2 cup roasted peanuts, optional

To prepare dressing, warm brown sugar, lime juice, soy sauce, garlic, and jalepeno in saucepan over low heat until sugar dissolves, stirring occasionally. Let cool while you prepare everything else.

Cook noodles according to package directions. Rinse in cold water, drain, squeeze out, and place in salad bowl.

Toss noodles with basil, mint, and 3/4 of the dressing mixture. Top with cucumber slices, bean sprouts, green onion, and mango. Drizzle with remaining dressing mixture. Sprinkle with cilantro and peanuts.

Creamy, Southern Potato Salad

I’m a snot. I admit it. In fact, I’ve admitted it more than once just today. Being a snot means that I frown on recipes that take the easy way out (”egg replacer for one egg”). C’mon, gimme a meaningful substitution. Or several. Subs that are so subtle, my un-culinary self doesn’t even know what they’re doing, or how they work, or which part of the recipe is a substitute for the properties I’m omitting. Like the binding agent, the fluffing mechanism. Keep me guessing, because “one egg replacer” isn’t gonna make me guess at all. It makes me 100% certain you were a lazy bum. C’mon.

So after almost two years of being a substitution snot, I decided to veganize one of my favorite recipes. And guess what? There is just one, simple, easy substitution - that’s right, just one - that takes this fave-o-mine straight to vegan-licious.

Now I’m thinking, in all fairness, I probably have to take all that snobbery right back. Or. Do. I?

Creamy, Southern Potato Salad* (PotSal**)

8 redskin potatoes, boiled and cut into chunks
1/2 yellow onion, diced
1/2 green bell pepper, diced
1/4 c. dill pickle relish
3/4 c. mayonnaise substitute (I used Vegenaise)
3-4 tsp. mustard
salt and pepper to taste
1/3 c. sliced green olives, optional
paprika, optional

Mash potatoes in large bowl until desired consistency. Add onion, bell pepper, dill pickle relish, mayo substitute, mustard, and salt/pepper. Mix until combined. Smooth and layer top with green olives and/or sprinkle with paprika. Both are optional and both are delicious either alone or in combination. (For a more tangy PotSal, add more mustard; creamier, add more vegan mayo.)

*Recipe altered from high school BFF’s sister’s recipe
**I call Potato Salad, “PotSal”, because it’s fun and makes people take a second look.