by Anne Naumann
Check the upcoming events article elsewhere in this newsletter regarding the upcoming Good Food Box order and pick-up dates. Please keep in mind that if you are ordering via e-transfer to me at [email protected] for the first time, please also send us a follow-up email to [email protected] with your contact information (phone and email) so we can contact you to remind you about the pick-up date and the next order date. If you are a new customer, we also need some basic demographics from you regarding how many people your box order will feed: number of adults (18 to 65), youth (0 to 17), seniors (65+), and families. We provide a summary of this information to the Community Kitchen folks for their grant reporting each month.
This last month the small ($25) Good Food Box I ordered contained the following: three red peppers, three bananas, three navel oranges, two mangoes, two lbs. carrots, one head iceberg lettuce, three apples, one yam, one eggplant, one zucchini, one head garlic, five lbs. potatoes, and three lbs. onions. I was excited about the mangoes, which reminded me of wonderful vacations I’ve had to tropical islands, so I thought I would use one to make a fruit salad, so I’ve included the recipe for that below.
Fruit Salad with Mango
Servings: At least 4 servings
Prep and Cook Time: Approximately 15 minutes
Kitchen Supplies Needed: Medium to large sized sharp knife, cutting board, large mixing bowl
Ingredients:
• 1 mango
• 2 apples
• 2 oranges
• Optional: splash of fruit juice, and/or maraschino cherries
Directions:
If you’ve never cut a fresh mango before, there’s a bit of a trick to it. Mangoes aren’t perfectly round, they are oval top to bottom, and look a bit like a squashed sphere. There’s a flat-ish, oval-shaped pit inside, so you need to cut the mango flesh away from the pit.
• Stand the mango vertically with the stem end up, and the wider part of the mango perpendicular to yourself. Line your knife blade up with the wider part of the mango, about 1 cm to one side of the stem on top. Cut down, and if you feel the pit, re-angle your knife to cut just along the edge of the pit.
• Repeat on the opposite side of the mango to cut away as much mango as possible, while leaving the pit. Then, trim the sides off which still have the mango peel on them, from the pit. Trim off any other bits of mango from the pit. Compost the pit.
• Now, you should have several chunks of mango with the peel still on them. I like to cut the two slabs of mango lengthwise in two or three portions, then use the knife blade on its side, with the mango peel side down, and slice across, just above the peel, and below the mango flesh, as if you are trimming the skin off a fish. Repeat this process until you have chunks of mango with no peel. Then, cut into bite sized pieces and put the chunks into the large bowl.
• Cut the apples and remove the core, then cut into bite sized pieces. If you prefer, you can peel the apples first, but I like the apple peel. Add the chunks to the bowl.
• Cut the peel off the oranges and cut them into bite sized pieces. Add the chunks to the bowl and stir. Note, the citric acid from the oranges should keep the apple pieces from turning brown.
• Note, you can also add (or substitute) pineapple chunks, bananas, or whatever other fruit you’d like.
• Optional: Add a splash of any kind of fruit juice and stir to coat. You could also add maraschino cherries.
• Serving options: “As-is”, with ice cream, with yogurt, etc. I tried each of these serving options and added pumpkin seeds on top of my fruit salad yogurt. Yummy!
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