Mango Salad Dressing

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Looking for a delicious salad dressing that is a total summer crowd-pleaser (kids included)? Look no further this Mango Dressing is just the thing!

Summer means Sun, Being Social & Salad

For me as a grown up, summer means sun, socialising and salad for dinner with friends. My kids are down with the sun part, totally down with the social part, the salad part… well we are working on that!

I’m a big believer in my kids being part of the family meal, so I try not to make a separate kids meal, but instead, try to make the family meal accessible to all. 

So if we are having a salad for dinner, there are 2 things I keep in mind to ensure it is accessible, delicious and ok for everyone; these are:

1. The way I plate it
2. The dressing I serve with it

(I’ll discuss both these in a just a little bit so that hopefully your kids will also become salad eating kids)

Summer also means On-line Supermarket Shopping

I’ve teamed up with Countdown to create and share this Mango Salad Dressing recipe, but first I just want to add a third little summer salad hack to this post. And that hack is doing grocery shopping online! Oh My Gosh, Countdown’s online shopping service & delivery has totally revolutionised my holiday this year. 

Instead of lugging loads of groceries away with us to the bach, or sending some poor soul off to do the grocery shopping, to a crowded supermarket quite some drive away when they could have been relaxing on the beach… 

This year I ordered online and had the magical people at Countdown pick my produce, pack my groceries and deliver everything to my bach without me needing to do anything more than order online while enjoying a wine! You should totally give it a go, it is life-changing!

During summer, they deliver to beaches and baches all over NZ so you can continue to enjoy your holiday. Full list of hotspots are here:  https://shop.countdown.co.nz/shop/content/summer

How I plate a salad for kids

There is quite a craze on Instagram and Pinterest to plate a salad so that you can see all the individual ingredients, almost like a piece of art, rather than tossing it all together.

Here’s the thing, I have been plating salad like this for my kids for ages. Not because it will get lots of likes on Instagram, but because it really is a practical way to plate a salad for children especially if they are a little fussy

Keeping the ingredients separate, means kids (and adults) can build their own salads in their own bowls (avoiding any bits that they really don’t enjoy) and then add the dressing themselves. 

This means that a kid who may have looked at a salad and said “I don’t like it” now has all the individual components to choose from. 

So yes they may not like red onion and spinach, but they may love mango, cucumber and avocado, and if that is all they choose to have in their salad.. Well that is totally fine.

How I built my Mango Avocado Salad

• Sliced Iceberg lettuce for crunch and it’s also mild flavoured for kids
• Baby spinach leaves, for the dark green colour, and it’s so easy to grab a bag from Countdown
• Cucumber
• Red Onion: I soak my sliced red onions in a little orange juice before adding them to a salad, it really makes them more kid-friendly, milder in flavour but still delicious
• Avocado to add some fat and creaminess
• Mango to add some sweetness (check out the little video which shows a great hack for slicing mango
• Macadamias and Hemp Hearts both add texture, crunch, protein and fats

To make it a real filling crowd-pleaser, I also grabbed a Hot Cooked Macro Free Range Chicken from the supermarket and some bread rolls.

Salad Dressings For Kids

I have found that choosing a kid-friendly salad dressing can really encourage kids to try salad. The Mango Salad Dressing I used on this salad is super simple, 4 ingredients, (5 if you count seasoning) that you just blitz together

When Mangoes are in season it’s delicious with fresh mango

But when they are not, defrosted frozen Mango is also perfectly fine

If you are on the hunt for a slightly more savoury dressing, then you can't go wrong with my quick homemade mayo or sriracha aioli.

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