Fresh Pineapple Mango Salsa Salad

When the garden begins to produce all those lovely veggies we hoped for, we have to find something to do with the abundance. Often it seems that everything needs harvesting at the exact same time!

Our grocery store has a small greenhouse they set up every year. We don't purchase any of our garden veggies there, BUT, the other day they had them reduced to just 50¢! So we had to grab a few things. I didn't plant any varieties of hot peppers this year, as I still have bags of frozen jalapenos from a few years ago, but with the price I thought I might as well. They had some hot banana pepper plants, so I grabbed the 4 pack that had tiny little banana peppers already started.

Of course, the peppers had to come off so the plants would grow bigger than 2 inches tall. But what to do with 3 bitty peppers? Fresh Pineapple Mango Salsa Salad it would be! Why a salsa salad? Salsa and chutney refer to sauces made of veggies or fruit, that are cooked. We aren't cooking this, and it's not a sauce. You could however cook this down, and you would indeed have a salsa since the ingredients are basically the same.

These tiny peppers still packed a huge amount of zing! When working with hot peppers, I always suggest using gloves while preparing them. If the oil from the peppers gets on your fingers, everything you touch will feel the burn of pepper, so make sure to wash your hands thoroughly (longer than you think you need to) with soap and warm water, and still use caution when touching your eyes! I washed twice, and still managed to have some stuck under a finger nail, which I noticed when I tried to eat a plain piece of pineapple!

I happened to have frozen mango in my freezer, and had just purchased some pineapple chunks for another recipe. You could use fresh of both, but honestly, I found it far easier to just chop up the frozen mango and canned pineapple, then try to peel, core, etc…

Fresh Pineapple Mango Salsa Salad    

1/2 can (20oz) pineapple chunks (about 1/2 cup), drained, cut in half

1/2 cup frozen mango chunks - cut these into smaller pieces

3 tiny banana peppers OR 1/4 to 1/2 of a whole banana pepper, minced

1 clove garlic

3 pinches of dried cilantro OR 3 T. fresh, minced

Salt & pepper to taste.

Mix all ingredients together in serving dish. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to sit for 1 hour, or longer, for flavors to meld. Stir and serve! This is great with chips, or you can spoon it over the top of chicken, pork or fish during the last 15 minutes of cooking.

I usually leave this covered in the refrigerator overnight, stirring at least twice more. I also will add some pineapple juice if it seems too dry, or if it's too spicy.