My Favourite Mango Salad

This is a simple, absolutely delicious one bowl meal that I discovered only at the fag end of the mango season. I know its a bit strange of me to be posting it now when there are hardly any mangoes in sight but this is such a lovely dish that I want to document it… just so I can come back to it next year. Infact I am already waiting for next year just so I can have the salad again. Though I fell in love with it because of how tasty it is with its fabulous medley of fresh flavours, this is actually a very healthy dish as well. Perfect for summer with the coolness of the cucumber, the soft bite of the nutritious barley, the sweetness of delicious indian mangoes, lovely freshness of the spring onions and coriander; and nutty salty crunch from the peanuts, you can throw it together pretty easily!

The dressing for the salad is great too and I think may work as a great dip. SO much so that I am planning some wicked things with it but meanwhile, just so you know that I’m not all fluff, here is a note on the healthfulness of barley –

Through a lot of my childhood I remember my mum force-feeding me barley water as a home remedy for illnesses. I’ve only now realised that the water are the grain is great for weight-loss as well as many stomach ailments. Barley because of its low GI keeps hunger at bay while also cutting bloating and nourishing the body with a host of vitamins. So whoever alleged I was eating this for almost everyday of a fortnight last month only because its scrumptious.. was just defaming me… ha.

Oh and yes! here’s a fabulous piece of news.. while I’m still staying off dairy, am starting to slowly ease into gluten again. Not gorging on it but discovering that little by little I can tolerate it better than I could. So Yoohoo! I’m back at bread baking and picking at bits and pieces of bread here and there.. Which leads me to another life changing (for me) piece of news. I’ve managed to make me a little a pet – my very own sourdough starter successfully made by catching the wild yeast in the Bombay Chowparty kitchen! What’s more, I’ve discovered (by virtue of one greedy binge on sourdough waffles) that sourdough can actually be tolerated successfully by many people who cannot handle gluten.. me included! So watch out people, there’s going to be a whole lot of Sourdough stuff coming up soon.

How to:

1. To build your barley salad, toss together about 2 cups of boiled barley, a big handful each of finely sliced spring onions, coriander and roasted salted peanuts, 2 cucumbers diced small and similarly diced flesh from 2 ripe mangoes.

2. Make the dressing by combining the juice and zest of one full lime, 1.5 tablespoons of vegetable oil, salt, sugar, black pepper and a finely chopped green chilly. Whisk the dressing till well combined, correct the sugar salt balance and pour over salad.

3. Toss and mix together and enjoy a yummy one bowl lunch!

This dish is fantastic on its own but also does well with the fresh ciabatta on the side and the meal proved to be so good that between Atul, me (gluten intolerance notwithstanding) and my sis Sheryl, we finished a huge hunk of a loaf all the while loading the salad onto, dipping the bread and mopping up juices in the bowl. Ah, it was a lovely afternoon.