Day 142: Tropical Salad Supper ♥

A quick supper, a magical melange of vegetables and fruit in a lime vinaigrette.

~post & photo updated 2013~
~more recently updated recipes~

2006 ORIGINAL POST: Leftovers aside, when you eat the very same thing three nights out of four, it's gotta be good. This is my new mainstay when "it's too [nice...hot...busy...pick one or insert your own] to cook" supper.

• Night #1 featured pork tenderloin and mango. Delicious.
• Night #2 included leftover poached chicken and papaya. Wonderful.
• (To)night #3 was meatless with kiwi. Not as good but maybe the 3rd time isn't always the charm?

The citrus tart in the vinaigrette does seem to mellow against against dense and somewhat fatty (even if lean) meat so a protein is recommended as are the creamier taste and texture of mangoes and papayas vs kiwi.

This salad is the first time I've ever eaten (to my knowledge) or cooked (certainly) Napa cabbage. All these years, and no Napa cabbage? Seems I'm making up for lost time.

Veggies for Kids
Night #2 was supper for a friend's young boys. Big salads with squishy avocado and strange fruit are hardly kids' fare (Plan B was peanut butter) but were nonetheless relished by both. Both boys liked the chicken and (especially) the currants, whose remnants got picked out of the serving bowl.

Both accepted the house rule, the one employed by my Mom on my sister and me AND our father: "You don't have to like it. You don't have to finish it. You do have to have a little taste."

• KID #1, an 8-year old finicky eater who also really liked the Napa cabbage: "Did I eat enough to qualify for dessert?" (With another few bites of chicken and red pepper, he did indeed.)
• KID #2, a five and 9/10 year old adventurous eater who also really liked the red pepper and papaya and started off liking avocado but changed his mind:Sounding slightly surprised: "I think this is a good supper."

Now Featured on Kitchen Parade I liked this recipe so much that it's featured in a Kitchen Parade column, see Tropical Salad Supper and its companion protein, the sweet-spice Tropical Pork Tenderloin.

A Veggie Venture is home of 'veggie evangelist' Alanna Kellogg and the
famous asparagus-to-zucchini Alphabet of Vegetables.
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