Spring and summer entertaining brings images of refreshing, brightly colored, healthy foods, frozen drinks, and Caribbean flavor. Sweet chunky fruits like mango, fresh squeezed lime juice, black beans and a bit of jalapeno provide just the right Mexican flavor with a Caribbean flair.

Mango, Corn and Black Bean Salsa Ingredients

Mangoes look beautiful on their own and with yellow corn and black beans in salsa. Photo: Afonso Lima, Sxc.hu

• juice of two limes
• 1 teaspoon of cumin
• 1 teaspoon of hot sauce
• ½ of a mango, peeled and finely chopped
• 1 -11oz. can of whole kernel sweet corn, drained
• 1-15 oz. can of black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 medium tomato, cored, seeded and finely diced
• 1 small jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped
• 1 small green bell pepper, cored, seeded and chopped
• ½ of a small red onion, finely chopped
• freshly ground sea salt to taste
• freshly ground pepper to taste
• Thin lime slices and sprigs of fresh mint for garnish.

Directions

1. Whisk together the lime juice, cumin and hot sauce in a bowl, and set aside.
2. Mix all remaining ingredients (except for the salt and pepper) together in another bowl.
3. Pour the juice mixture over the other ingredients and gently mix with a spoon.
4. Add salt and pepper to taste.
5. Chill for at least one hour.
6. Garnish with sprigs of fresh mint and lime slices.

Serve with organic, blue corn chips as an appetizer. Or serve as side dish with grilled shrimp kebabs. Frozen margaritas, with or without alcohol, are a wonderful flavor compliment to this dish.

The sweetness of the mango combined with the crunchiness of the corn and the flavor and texture of the beans makes for a totally satisfying eating experience visually, texturally and taste-wise. Those who do not like beans and/or corn can still enjoy the flavor of mango salsa, either by leaving out the corn and beans and adding more mango.

Finding a Ripe Mango

Make sure the mango is ripe before cutting it. Look for a deep peach color instead of mostly yellow and green, but some types of mangoes are more yellow and green. Sniff the mango around the stem, it should smell sweet. If it feels hard when pressing on it, it is not ripe. To let it ripen, leave it at room temperature (on the cool side) until the flesh yields a bit when pushed on. If it gets mushy it will be over-ripe, and will not taste sweet. After it ripens, refrigerate it until it’s ready to eat.

Eating Mangoes

Mangoes are wonderful to use in recipes but they also are delicious on their own if cut and eaten correctly. Mangoes have a hard core in the center. Eating the flesh right off the core can be unpleasant because it can be stringy and the juice escapes when the flesh is bitten into. Putting a chunk of mango in one’s mouth is the best way to enjoy it.

Mango dishes are sure to please, especially in spring and summer.

©Lisa C. DeLuca, all rights reserved.  It is a violation of copyright law to reproduce this work on the web or for business use without permission from the author. This article was originally published on the web on May 12, 2008. Please contact the author with your reprint request.