Satisfying, fresh and simple to prepare, serve this antipasto salad at your next soirée.

It was around this time last year that I visited Thailand. Several breathtaking days were spent in Phuket and touring the exquisite Phi Phi Islands. The movie, The Beach with Leonardo DiCaprio helped make these islands especially famous (which I’m sure many of the locals are now cursing). The most well-known beach, “Maya Bay” is home to a few rangers who help to protect the land.

Some of the best snorkelling can also be experienced here and monkey viewing if you’re into that. Monkeys can be seen from the shores of Monkey Beach. Sadly, these animals have become somewhat reliant on boating tourists to feed them. Our guide informed us that visitors will throw food and even bottles of beer and soda onto the beach.

Astonishingly, these little guys have even learned to open bottles. I was glad to see that some of the guides are discouraging it and are trying to educate travellers on such actions.

After exploring and sampling many of the local tasty and fragrant foods, the remainder of the trip was spent in Bangkok which was like going from zero to 100 in seconds, but that’s a whole other story…

Italian-Thai Mango Salad

Ingredients

1 pint cherry tomatoes
2 large ripe mangos
¼ small sweet red onion
Handful of fresh mint & basil
5 thinly cut slices of prosciutto
Extra Virgin Olive Oil to taste
Fresh lime juice to taste

Directions

1. Bake prosciutto for a few minutes until crisp, watch carefully not to burn. Set aside and break apart once cooled.
2. Cut mango into chunks and halve some of the cherry tomatoes, keeping some whole. Thinly slice about a quarter of a red onion.
3. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and then plate onto a platter. Squeeze some lime juice to taste and drizzle olive oil over top.

Milk & Marigolds Says…

Keep tomatoes out of the fridge to help develop full flavour. If you don’t have lime, substitute with lemon.

Copyright 2015 © Milk & Marigolds