Smitten Kitchen's Mango slaw with cashews and mint

I have been reading Smitten Kitchen for years and I love pretty much anything Deb posts, from her fantastic baked goods recipes to the photos of adorable little J (yes, I am partial, we had baby boys just around the same time).

Anyhow, on Friday I was sitting at my desk dreading the trip home in the sweltering heatwave that seems to have hit both sides of the Atlantic. I came across the Mango slaw with cashews and mint recipe and fell instantly in love. Just the thought of Thai food is enough to start my mouth watering and seeing Deb's beautiful photos convinced me I had to have some of that all for myself.

Out I rushed to buy some mango, cabbage, lime and mint. I cut and chopped and squeezed away in a frenzy. I barely gave it time to cool off in the fridge. I needed some immediately! Sure enough, it was a bite of heaven: sweet & sour, cool & crunchy, hot... my taste buds went wild with every bite, I was addicted.

 And I want you to become addicted too!

Ingredients
2 mangoes
about 1/2 large cabbage
1/4 cup of chopped fresh mint
1/4 cup of toasted cashews
1/2 red onion
2 limes
1/4 cup rice vinegar
a pinch of salt
2 tbsp oil
red pepper flakes

The great thing about this slaw, as Deb points out, is that you can use ripe or unripe mango. No more planning ahead for a dinner with friends and then getting to the market to find unripe exotic fruit. Doesn't that always happen to you with avocado? Avocados here are usually rock hard and when I am organized enough to buy them in advance, they are usually way too soft by the time my dinner party rolls around. The mangoes I got were extremely ripe, so ripe that attempting to julienne them turned out to be impossible. I chopped them up instead.

So peel, pit and julienne or dice your mangoes. Thinly slice the cabbage and onion, chop the fresh mint and coarsely chop the cashews. Toss it all in a bowl. For the dressing, squeeze the juice of two limes, add the rice vinegar, oil and salt. I left out the red pepper because I didn't have any handy. Toss the slaw with the dressing and let cool in the fridge. We had ours with some roast chicken.