mango pineapple salsa on pan-seared cod with roasted sweet potatoes

Pineapple Mango Avocado Salsa

Pineapple Mango Salsa

By Clean Slate Farm/Dave Lenweaver
Prep time: 20 minutes
Servings: 6

Ingredients

  • 1 mango peeled, cut into a ¼” dice
  • 1 avocado peeled and 1/4" dice
  • ½ cup pineapple cut into a ¼” dice
  • ½ red bell pepper cut into a ¼” dice
  • ¼ cup red onion finely diced
  • 1 jalapeño finely diced (optional)
  • 1 lime zested and juiced
  • 3 tablespoons cilantro leaves chopped
  • 1 1″ knob ginger peeled and grated fine (optional but recommended)
  • 2 tsp Clean Slate Farm Honey Ginger balsamic
  • 2 tsp Clean Slate Farm Habanero Olive Oil

Instructions

In a medium bowl, combine the diced mango, pineapple, bell pepper, red onion, avocado, and jalapeño if using. Toss to combine.

Add the balsamic, habanero oil, lime zest, lime juice, ginger, and cilantro, and mix again.

Jalapeno and ginger are optional,. You can add them, especially the ginger, you want, but the habanero, adjusted to your taste, will be sufficient for most.

Taste for seasonings, adding salt and freshly ground pepper if desired.

Serve with chicken, pork, fish, or shellfish.

As a student at the Culinary Institute of America, you get two cooking practicals to test your skills. Back when I was there, they gave you a stack of index cards, each with the name of a recipe. The task was for the student to scour their memory for the recipe they previously made in one of their classes and choose the most appropriate side. The “chef-inquisitor’s” job was to wander the kitchen, observing the five students toiling at their stations. It was a test of skills, prep (mise en place), clean work station, timing, and taste.

Basically, they hand you a rope to either tie the whole thing together or, well, you get it.

This is a take-off of the recipe I prepared for the cooking practical. Salmon with pineapple/mango salsa. It’s a fairly easy recipe, but I added avocado and ginger, then switched the rice wine with tart white balsamic. I was tempting the Kitchen Gods by changing it, as it was a definite twist on the school recipe. However, the chef instructor graded me at 96 (no one, I mean no one, ever received 100), but then said I was a bit heavy on the five o'clock shadow and took 10 points off my score.

Anyway, my new take uses the juicy chunks of ripe pineapple, succulent mango pieces, creamy avocado, all mixed with zesty lime juice and cilantro. But the addition of Habanero Olive Oil for a spicy kick and Honey Ginger Balsamic for extra ginger flavor and acid rounds it out. 

Here are some other great uses: topping for grilled fish or chicken, scoop it up with tortilla chips, or spoon it over tacos for a burst of tropical flavor. You can even enjoy it straight out of the bowl!

So grab your chopping board, gather your ingredients, and get ready to salsa your way to a taste sensation like no other. Pineapple Mango Avocado Salsa: it's a fiesta in every bite.

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