Mango Chow – A Caribbean Treat!

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If you’re from the Caribbean, or have any ties to the region, just the thought of a good bowl of mango chow is enough to set your taste buds on fire and make your mouth salivate.
Sweet, salty, spicy, and herbaceous, this simple snack combines fresh mango with herbs and spices to create a perfectly seasoned bite of the Caribbean.

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Why You’ll Love This Treat:

Mango Chow is fresh, healthy, wholesome, easy to make, gluten-free, vegan-friendly, and customizable to suit your taste. Low in calories, fat, sugar and using wholesome ingredients, this dish requires no cooking and comes together in absolutely no time!

A Bit About Mango Chow.

While it’s often known as a street food in the Caribbean, for many of us, this dish is a quintessential part of our childhood. It was a treat whipped up in our mother’s and grandmother’s kitchens during the blistering hot summer days when you were on break from school (since mango is mainly in season during the months of June – September). And whether you had a tree in your backyard that you could climb and pick you own, or your neighbor’s tree happened to hang over your side of the fence 😅 or the nice lady up the road sent Mummy a bag of mangoes, or even if you had to pick some up in the market, the fact is, not a summer would pass us by when we didn’t suck on a plump, juicy mango, yellow nectar dripping off the backs of our hands, while the perfect mango sat in wait in the batch, just begging to be turned into a chow.

And as any Caribbean-ite can tell you, our chows don’t end with just mango. Almost any in-season fruit would occasionally be “dressed up” into a chow, be it pomerac, pommecythere, clementines (pitigals!), even pineapples, if it was juicy with a combined sweet and tart flavor to it, we would chow-i-fy it!

Here’s a question for you all: what’s your favorite part of a good chow? Is it eating the mango itself or is it slurping down the “chow juice” after you eat all the mango??

Where Did the Term “Chow” Even Come From??

This is one of those age old questions, but a fair assumption is that it either originated from chow-chow, a dish consisting of pickle-brined, almost relish-like ingredients that varied from mangoes to cucumbers and can be found in various parts of South and East Asian countries, particularly India where it’s known as achar. Or, it came from the Chinese pidgin English term of chow-chow, which meant “food,” – a term derived from the Chinese cha, which means “mixed.”

Whichever term is the true origin, both can be applied as a mango chow consists of fresh mango pieces tossed and mixed together with herbs and spices and left to marinate for the best results.

What Kind of Mango Is Best For Mango Chow?

Honestly any variety of mango works. Rose, starch, Julie, Calabash, even Long Mango/Cutlass. Like with most recipes, you’ll find that everyone has their own preference for what they think is the best version and everyone will have their own little touch that makes their chow unique to them.

As for the ripeness/state of the mango, you’ll want a mango that is firm but not rock hard. If you prefer a green mango or even a fully ripe mango for your chows, that’s totally fine too! Speaking personally, a half ripe mango works best for me and here’s why, it’s the best of both worlds: slightly sweet, slightly tart, the texture is firm but easy to slice through and it’s not green enough to edge my teeth or make my salivary glands go into overdrive and my jaw ache from the sourness.

Can I Use Frozen Mango?

Sure. If you’re not able to get your hands of freshly picked mangoes (which are optimal) you can opt to use the prepackaged chunks of fresh-to-frozen mangoes – the kind that most people use in their smoothies. Or if you had an excess of fresh mangoes and you opted to peel, slice and freeze them yourself, you can absolutely use them to make this delectable Caribbean treat!

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Here’s What You Need to Make a Good Mango Chow:

• Mangoes: For the best results use a whole, fresh picked half ripe mango. The type and variety are entirely up to you. Some people enjoy greener mangoes and some enjoy fully ripe mangoes, honestly the choice is up to you.
• Garlic: You’ll need a whole small clove of fresh garlic.
• Pepper Sauce/Hot Sauce: A touch of hot pepper, pepper sauce, or hot sauce adds great flavor and spice to our chow. If you don’t have the Caribbean pepper sauce, but happen to have some Asian chili garlic sauce on hand, it is a great and flavorful alternative! Or if you have whole, raw hot peppers or chilis on hand, you can use a touch of that at well just to get the heat and spice.
• Cilantro/Culantro: Cilantro or culantro (aka broad leaf cilantro or chadon beni) adds a wonderful sweet and herbaceous earthiness to the dish that works great when combined with all other elements. If you’re wondering what the difference is between cilantro and culantro, think of culantro as a far more potent version of cilantro!
• Salt: A touch of Himalayan salt or sea salt really complements the fruity sweetness of the mango and seasons our chow.
• Ketchup: This might seem strange but a small touch of ketchup is my personal little touch that adds a layer of umami and acid to our chow and it also serves as a great base for the marinade that the pieces will sit in.
• Lime/Lemon Juice: Though I’m not using any today (mainly because there are elements of it in my pepper sauce and the ketchup), a squeeze of lime or lemon juice or even a touch of vinegar is something many swear by.

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Here’s How Easy This Chow Is To Throw Together:

The first step is to prep your mango. To do this you’ll need to:

• Peel your mango: You can use a knife to peel off the skin but a great trick I like to use is to use a potato peeler! It removes just enough of the skin and makes short work of your mango, especially if it’s half-ripe or on the greener side.
• Slice your mango: We’re going to slice our mango into strips. The easiest way to do this is to slice off the two broadest sides, avoiding the large, flat seed in the middle. If you do hit the seed, simply retract the knife and make the slice again, a bit further out this time. With the two large flat “cheeks” removed, cut the thinner side pieces off the seed and remove any flesh around the tips too. Finally cut the larger “cheek” pieces into strips like in the image above.

Add all your seasonings into the bowl with your mango strips.

And toss all ingredients together to fully coat all the mango pieces. Taste test it and adjust your seasonings to suit your personal taste. Maybe you’d like a bit more salt or a touch more pepper, go ahead and add in whatever you’d like to now. Then cover your chow and allow it to rest and marinate for 15-60 minutes for the best results. Then, before you dig in, give your mango pieces a final toss to bring the “sauce” that’s now on the bottom to the top to coat all your pieces.

Some people enjoy a room temperature chow while others like to set their bowl to marinate in the fridge to have a cool and refreshing bite of chilled, spicy, seasoned fruit. Which do you prefer? Let us know in the comments below! And if you try this recipe, don’t forget to rate it and let us know what you thought about it. If this was your first time trying mango chow, let us know what you thought about it! See you guys in the next post!