Spicy Mango BBQ Sauce

Over the last few weeks, I've come to realised that being a vegetarian in the neighborhoods of SG is difficult and not exactly healthy. There's usually only 1 store selling V food in each food place and most sell fried bee hoon/white rice/ brown rice with a variety of mostly fried beancurd (& skins) and greasy/spicy vegetables. There's also usually many choices of bean products, somewhat done to resemble meat in taste/texture as well, which just doesn't cut it for me. If I want to be vegetarian, I wanna eat vegetables!

After 2 weeks of greasy beehoon and bread in every form, we went to Salad Stop at Novena Sq. Spinach, pumpkin, sunflower seeds, onions, mango etc wrapped in a toasted spinach wrap with a spicy thai sauce was refreshing. Now... That's a healthy vegetarian dinner for us!

It can also be easily replicated at home. I set out to look for a delicious and non-creamy dressing since I shun anything that screams milk. Pinterest, my latest best friend, yielded a recipe that suits just this occasion! Adapting it in a variety of ways due to availability (or rather unavailability) of ingredients in the nearby supermarket, the Spicy Mango dressing is borned.

Definitely spicy, the sweetness of the mango somewhat tempered it and a fruitiness in the sauce shone through. However, beware if you are non-spicy eater, the bird's eye chilli has a potency that creeps up on you. In a very Singaporean way, it would simply be Shiok!

Recipe:
1 Large very-ripe Mango, diced
Juice from half a lemon
1/2 an onion, chopped
5 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 teaspoon sea salt
4 chilli padi, cut (seeds removed if you prefer it less spicy)
1/2 cup unsweetened apple juice
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1/2 cup sunflower oil
2/3 cup ketchup
2 tablespoon rice vinegar
2 tablespoon Nando's Garlic Peri Peri sauce (optional, I added it just to increase the usage)
Black Pepper (to taste)
Coriander (optional, I used it when I use this sauce as a marinade, it complements the taste)



It's a very simple recipe. Cut and measure everything, dump it all into a pot, bring to boil and simmer for around 10 -15 minutes. Cool it and I used a hand blender to emulsify it.

I used it as a marinade for the grilled chicken breast (no longer vegetarian but trying to stick to lean protein) and mixed 3 parts natural yoghurt to 5 parts sauce as the salad dressing. Thumbs-up by the hubby!



Add some toasted walnuts, dried cranberries and thick cubes of mango to the usual salad suspects and you've yourself a very satisfying grilled chicken salad.