Strawberry Mango Salad with Balsamic Dressing

For this month's International Food Challenge, we are going to explore the Bordeaux cuisine from France. Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in southwest France. The historic part of the city is on the UNESCO World Heritage List as “an outstanding urban and architectural ensemble” of the 18th century. Bordeaux is also an upscale place- a city for luxury shopping, drinking, and eating. It sits in the center of the world famous wine region that bears its name and thus tourists come here come to eat, drink, experience wine, and be merry. 

Saraswathi, our host, gave us some delicious bakes from Bordeaux to try. But I'm neck deep into baking other things, so I decided to make this colorful and refreshing Strawberry-Mango Salad.
Winter has been terrible this year, especially this month. This February is going down as one of the coldest February in the recorded history (or so we have been told). So when I saw this salad with summer fruits, strawberry & mango, it made me think of the warm weather and the colorful produce it's going to bring.

I wasn't sure if I would get good mangoes, but luckily I found some good quality mangoes in Whole Foods (and to top it off, they were on sale -- yippee!!). So the salad, even though not very seasonal for this time of the year, tasted pretty good. I'm definitely going to make it again when both strawberries & mangoes are in season.

Recipe adapted from All Recipes:

Ingredients: Makes 2 Servings

For the Salad:
Strawberries - 8~10

Mango - 1 medium, peeled, seeded and cubed

Mixed greens - 2cups
Sweetened Dried Cranberries - 3tbsp
Red Onion - 1 small, thinly sliced
Slivered Almonds - 3tbsp, lightly toasted

For the Dressing:

Balsamic Vinegar - 2tsp

Sugar - 1tbsp

Oil - 2tbsp

Salt & Pepper - to taste

Method:

• Make the Dressing: Combine all the ingredients for the dressing in a jar with lid. Shake vigorously to mix. Alternately whisk all the ingredients until combined.
• Make the Salad: In a large bowl, mix all the salad ingredients. Drizzle with the dressing, toss gently and sprinkle with almonds. Serve immediately.