Mango and avocado salad with cashews

For a light, refreshing summer salad why not try this mango and avocado salad with cashews and a balsamic, honey and basil dressing. This salad is delicious served with a barbeque or why not enjoy it on its own with a slice of crusty bread for a quick and easy lunch.

**As an Amazon affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases.**

A delicious tropical salad

When I lived in South Africa, with its abundance of tropical fruit, we were always experimenting with unusual flavour combinations for our next barbeque salad. And I think we hit the jackpot with this one!

It’s made with creamy avocados sliced with juicy mangos on a bed of crispy lettuce, liberally sprinkled with cashew nuts and sweet pomegranate seeds. The salad is drizzled with a dressing made from olive oil, balsamic vinegar, crushed cashews and chopped basil, lightly sweetened with honey. The tangy dressing makes the perfect foil for the sweet mango and creamy avocdo.

Served ice cold, this mango and avocado salad makes a welcome addition at any barbeque buffet and it is a firm favourite with all my family and friends.

Recipe information

Get the complete list of ingredients and full instructions for making this mango and avodado salad on the printable recipe card at the end of this post.

• Prep time – 15 minutes
• Cooking time – no cooking required
• Yield – serves 4 to 6 as a side salad
• Calories – 294 per serving
• Main equipment – These salad bowls from Amazon make a colourful addition to your outdoor entertaining.

Ingredients

There are 5 ingredients in the salad and 5 ingredients in the dressing.

For the salad

Avocado – choose an avocado that is firm to the touch, has a slight ‘give’ when pressed gently with your finger. If the avocado feels ‘mushy’ then it is overripe and should not be used. By the same token, you shouldn’t try to use an avocado that feels rock-hard when you press it – that will be under-ripe.

Mango – the same goes for the mango. You should choose a mango that ‘gives’ a little when pressed gently. A ripe mango should also give off a slightly sweet aroma from the stem end.

Pomegranate – in the UK you can sometimes buy little tubs of pomegranate seeds in the fruit and vegetable aisle of the supermarket. Otherwise just buy a whole pomegranate and use the seeds from there. You will only need one-quarter of a pomegranate for this recipe.

Lettuce – Little Gem or Romaine lettuce (sometimes called Cos) are ideal for this salad because they have a nice crunch to the leaves.

Cashew nuts – these add a nice crunchy element to the salad. Try to get unsalted cashew nuts if possible.

For the dressing

Fresh basil leaves – this must be FRESH basic, not the dried herb that you get in bottles.

Cashew nuts – these are crushed and added to the salad more for the flavour than for crunch. The crunch comes from the whole cashews that are sprinkled on the salad.

Extra virgin olive oil – to moisten the dressing and ensure that it clings to the lettuce leaves.

Balsmic vinegar – for a hint of acidity.

Honey – for a touch of sweetness, which cuts through the acidity of the balsamic.

I always add a pinch of salt to the dressing, but this is optional and to your own taste.

How to make it

Make the dressing

Start off by crushing the cashew nuts as finely as possible in a plastic bag, with rolling pin, then chop the basil finely.

Place these ingredients into screw-top jar with the olive oil, balsamic vinegar and honey.

Shake thoroughly to combine and then set aside whlle you assemble the salad.

Make the mango and avocado salad

Peel and chop the mango.

If you haven’t done this before you can get the instructions below.

• A mango is not quite round. You will notice that it is slightly flattened on both sides. There is also a large pip on the inside.
• Place the mango on one of the flattened sides and insert your knife into the side of the mango. Cut until you can feel the pip then angle the knife slightly upwards until it slides over the pip. Continue cutting until you have two pieces of mango, one piece with the pip still attached.
• Now put your knife against the long end of the pip and angle slightly downwards so that you can cut underneath the pip to remove it.
• Once the pip has been removed, make criss-cross cuts in the mango half taking care not to cut through the skin. Then invert the skin so that you have cubes of mango on the inside out skin (see image above). It will now be easy to cut the mango cubes away from the skin. Alternatively you can scoop the cubes from the mango half with a spoon.
• In case you are still unsure, the National Mango Board has a great tutorial on how to cut a mango..

Peel and chop the avocado

The images below show the best way to remove the pip from the avocado.

• Make a cut around the avocado from top to bottom, then twist the two halves in opposite directions to separate them.
• Remove any brown bits from the top of the avocado (if there are any).
• Hold the avocado half (with the pip) in one hand and hit the pip sharply with a knife. You can hold the avocado in a kitchen towel if you are scared of cutting yourself.
• Twist the knife gently and the pip will come away from the avocdo.
• Now make criss-cross cuts into the avocado (in the same way as for the mango) and scoop the cubes of avocado out of the skin with a spoon.

Assemble the salad

• Wash the lettuce and separate into individual leaves. Pat dry on paper towels.
• Reserve a few of the lettuce leaves to arrange around the edge of the dish, and tear the remaining leaves into bite-sized pieces and arrange in a salad bowl.
• Add the cubes of mango and avocado and toss through with a spoon to combine.
• Scatter cashew nuts and pomegranate seeds over the top.

• Arrange the reserved lettuce leaves around the edges of the bowl..
• Chill in the refrigerator and drizzle with the dressing just before serving.

If you’d like to be notified of any new recipes, why not subscribe to my newsletter? As a thank-you gift, you will receive a free recipe e-book containing some of my most popular cakes and desserts.

Pin for later

If you’d like to make this mango and avocado salad with cashews, why not pin it to one of your Pinterest boards so you can find it easily when you need it. Just click the image below.

More salad recipes

You may also like to try some of these other delicious salad recipes to make any barbeque go with zing:

• Copper penny salad (sweet and sour carrots)
• Creamy coleslaw salad
• Salmon and red pepper pasta salad
• Spicy mushroom fried rice
• Orzo pasta summer salad

The recipe

If you made this recipe and enjoyed it, I’d love it if you could give me a star rating in the comments below. And if you’d like to get in touch, you can email me at [email protected]. I’d love to hear from you. And don’t forget to subscribe to my mailing list so you can grab yourself a copy of my FREE COOKBOOK!

If you’d like to continue browsing, just click on this link to all my recipes.