Mango Radicchio Edamame Rainbow Salad (oil-free)

Beautiful and refreshing, this salad boasts a perfect balance of sweet, bitter, nutty and tart. Crisp assertive radicchio pairs exceptionally well with ripe juicy mangos. Shelled edamame beans add a protein-packed pop of green, while a light citrusy oil-free peanut dressing synthesizes the vibrant mix of textures and flavors.

WHY I LOVE IT

This salad has chutzpah and it’s only slightly pretentious. It’s easy to put together, especially if you use thawed frozen mango cubes, and cleanup is minimal. We all know we should be eating the rainbow. Well, this salad doesn’t just talk the rainbow talk, it walks the rainbow walk. Part of its charm is that the ingredients haven’t been typecast—the brightest pop of green comes from the beans while the only leafy vegetable is purple. Osmosis helps the juice from the mangos merge with the dressing thus sweetening the entire salad and balancing the slight bitterness of the radicchio. Vibrant red bell pepper magnifies the joyful optics while cucumber chunks create small bursts of freshness. Take this salad to a potluck and I guarantee that it will receive rave reviews. For a balanced satisfying meal at home, I love pairing it with whole grain avocado toast.

RADICCHIO AND ALTERNATIVES

I think of radicchio as a fancy vegetable, maybe even a bit standoffish. When I said that this salad is only slightly pretentious I was mostly alluding to the radicchio. It can also be expensive and in some parts of the world radicchio can be difficult or impossible to find. Then there’s the bitterness. Though it’s by no means the most bitter lettuce of all, radicchio is moderately bitter which may be a problem for some. If you can’t, or prefer not to, use radicchio in this salad, don’t worry because it’s the easiest ingredient to substitute in the recipe. Just use purple cabbage instead or another similarly hued leafy vegetable such as purple kale or purple chard.

CUCUMBER OPTIONS

I like English and Persian cucumbers best because the thin peel is never bitter and the seeds are small and delicate. Regular thick skinned American cucumbers would also work in this recipe, as would any other variety. If I were to use a thick skinned cucumber for this salad, I’d peel it and maybe even remove the seeds. But that’s a matter of personal preference. An unpeeled cucumber will have more nutrients but the peel can taste bitter.

FRESH OR FROZEN MANGOS

My whole food plant-based lifestyle requires having plenty of fruit on hand all the time. Frozen fruits are an easy and economical way to do this. But not all frozen fruits are equally versatile. Frozen mangoes are especially convenient because they are already peeled and cut into large chunks. For this recipe, ripe fresh mangoes are terrific, but frozen mangoes are, in my opinion, every bit as good, so go with whatever is most convenient for you. Personally, I think that the flavor and ripeness of frozen mangos is more consistent. If you go with frozen mangos, keep in mind that you don’t need to fully thaw them to start chopping but they should be mostly or fully thawed by the time they’re mixed into the salad.

GOLDILOCKS CHOPPING

When chopping the veggies for this salad I tried to find the sweet spot. The idea was to make the pieces small enough so that multiple ingredients could fit onto a single forkful but not so small that the salad became mushy. I used thawed frozen mango which was already cut into cubes but I cut each cube into smaller pieces, aiming for cubes that are two or three times the size of an edamame bean. Chopping vegetables feels therapeutic to some and like a chore to others. If you’re in the latter group, be patient. Once everything’s chopped there’s not much more to do and you’ll have a gloriously nourishing dish to enjoy.

MIXING THE DRESSING

In order to minimize cleanup I like to blend the ingredients for the dressing in the large mixing bowl that I plan to use for tossing the salad. Getting the peanut butter to blend into the liquid ingredients may take a couple of minutes. You can use a silicon spatula, a whisk or a large spoon.

TOSS LIKE YOU MEAN IT

The dressing for this salad is very light and the only sodium is the sodium that’s in the coconut aminos or soy sauce. This is partly because it’s an oil-free whole food plant-based (WFPB) recipe focusing on plant foods, not on heavy seasonings. But it’s also because I’m counting on the sodium in the dressing to draw out the juices from the mango chunks and veggies allowing them to merge with and expand the dressing. After adding all the remaining ingredients to the mixing bowl, you have to gently but diligently toss the salad until the dressing is evenly distributed. Once tossed, it’s a good idea to taste the salad to see if you’d like to adjust the seasonings. Sometimes I add a little more lemon juice, coconut aminos or salt.

SUBSTITUTIONS AND ADD-ONS

If you want to use this recipe as creative inspiration and do your own thing, that’s perfectly awesome. However, this salad is so well balanced in terms of both optics and flavor that I’m offering fewer substitutions and variations than usual.

• Use Purple Cabbage Instead of Radicchio: As I already discussed in the radicchio section above, purple cabbage would be a great substitute for radicchio. You could also try purple kale or purple chard.

• Use a Different Vinegar: Apple cider or white wine vinegar would both work almost as well as rice vinegar in this salad.

• Use Chopped Peanuts Instead of Sesame Seeds: This would accentuate the peanutiness of the salad in a good way.

• Substitute Lemon Juice with Lime Juice: It’s almost always ok to use lime juice instead of lemon juice and it’s a lovely option for this salad.

• Add Mustard: You can add up to one tablespoon of dijon mustard or stone-ground mustard to the dressing ingredients. Dry mustard also works and you would only need up to one teaspoon. I’ve made this salad with and without mustard and liked both versions. I decided to go with fewer ingredients, but mustard is great so long as you don’t overdo it.

• Make it Spicy: If you’d like you can give this salad a bit of kick by adding some of your favorite hot sauce, cayenne pepper or red pepper flakes.

• Add Avocado: Up to one cup of sliced or chopped avocado would be great in this salad, making it even more satiating.

• Add Sprouts: If you’re like me and you love sprouts, you could throw in up to half a cup of broccoli or radish sprouts to boost nutrients and add to the complexity of this salad without detracting from the optics or flavor.

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