Recipe | Mango Salad with Bagoong Vinaigrette

This week, I made the vow to eat salad for the entire week. Fifth day today, and I am pleased to say that I still haven't gotten tired eating it. There are so many ways of preparing salads, but I don't know, somehow I am stuck at using the few main ingredients - lettuce, cucumbers, carrots, and tomatoes. Next week, I will try other ingredients as well.

One recipe I wanted to do was the Mango Salad with Dijon Bagoong Vinaigrette by Chef Rolando Laudico, published by Yummy Magazine. However, I can't find any Kesong Puti at the supermarket, so I always put off preparing it. Thankfully, one episode of Saksi (a news program at GMA7) featured some easy to do meatless dishes, which included this. Very similar to the recipe by Chef Lau, but much easier to prepare.


Mango Salad with Bagoong Vinaigrette

Ingredients (Salad):

• Salad Greens
• Red Bell Pepper
• Green Bell Pepper
• White Onion
• Green Mango
• Ripe Mango
• Dried Mango
• Carrots

Ingredients (Vinaigrette):

• Bagoong Alamang Guisado
• Dijon Mustard
• Minced Garlic
• Olive Oil
• Pinakurat Vinegar
• Salt and Pepper

How to Prepare:

• Cut the salad ingredients according to your preference.
• Whisk or process the ingredients for the vinaigrette and toss with the vegetables.

We didn't have any Pinakurat Vinegar, so I used the Sinamak Vinegar we have at home. I only needed about 2 tablespoons of the vinaigrette, so processing it with the blender seemed impossible to do. We also don't have a wire whisk, so for me to blend the oil with the mustard and vinegar, I used a shaker. One change I did was to lessen the bagoong (I only used a pinch) and just add salt as needed.

At first I was apprehensive if we will like it because the first time I made my own vinaigrette (using balsamic vinegar and olive oil), I hated it. This Bagoong Vinaigrette turned out to be really good, because the bagoong went well with the rest of the ingredients, and that this somehow taste a little like vegetarian pizza. Mom and sister loved it, too, and my sister is requesting me to prepare it again.

Oh, I also took the liberty of adding cashew nuts, because it was part of Chef Lau's recipe. Now I realized, even without the Kesong Puti, it would still taste great. Of course, I'd still try to prepare Chef Lau's recipe. I am thinking of visiting Sidcor Weekend Market this Sunday to try my luck.