Mango Avocado Salad with Crispy Chorizo

Name: Mango Avocado Salad with Crispy Chorizo
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 30 min
Ingredients: 1 chorizo (dry cured); 2 mango; 2 avocado; 1½ cup watercress; 3 tbsp olive oil; 1½ tbsp apple cider vinegar; 1 tsp seeded mustard; 1 tsp honey; salt (to taste); pepper (to taste)

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Soft sweet mango and creamy avocado mixed with peppery watercress and crispy chorizo for the perfect composed salad to excite the eyes and the taste buds. Quick to prepare and delicious to eat all summer long.

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Why You’ll Love Mango Avocado Salad
What is Chorizo?
How to Eat Chorizo?
Recipe Overview
Ingredients
Variations and Substitutions
Instructions
Expert Tips: How to Make This Salad Perfectly
Great Main Dishes for This Salad
Frequently Asked Questions
Recipe

Why You’ll Love Mango Avocado Salad

Mango and Avocado. A very popular pairing for summer salad recipes. You can’t go wrong. Sweet and creamy melded into one.

And it’s so easy to prepare a chopped mango avocado salad, just like our spicy mango avocado recipe. We chop and toss everything in a bowl with some extra ingredients and good classic honey mustard dressing. Then we are done!

Simple and delicious summer salad.

But what if you want to change things up a little?

This is what I love about my Mango Avocado Salad with Crispy Chorizo. Presenting classic ingredients together but in a completely different way.

Give the fruit a brand new cut. Yes. Like a haircut, slice the mango and avocado slightly differently, and you get a whole new salad. Just like our spicy green salad with avocado, the avocado fan transforms the whole look.

You retain the sweetness and delicate creamy flavours of mango and avocado. However, with the added saltiness of crispy chorizo and peppery bite of watercress, this salad with mango and avocado is plated with sophistication and deliciousness all rolled into one.

A perfect summer salad from outdoor barbecues to dinner parties.

What is Chorizo?

For this mango and avocado salad recipe, I wanted to add a contrasting ingredient to offset the sweetness of mango. Chorizo is a fantastic choice.

Chorizo is a spicy pork sausage similar to salami but denser and bolder in flavour.

Popular in Spanish and Mexican cooking, chorizo comes in two forms – dry and cured (Spanish version) or raw and fresh (Mexican version).

Mexican chorizo tends to be spicier than Spanish chorizo as there are added chile peppers and spices in the fresh sausage.

Spanish cured chorizo is made of chopped pork meat and pork fat, then seasoned with smoked paprika, garlic and salt. It is then cased in a sausage casing and hung out to dry cure for up to 6-10 weeks.

The signature smoky flavour in cured chorizo comes from paprika.

two dry cured chorizo sausages with two avocados and two mangos surrounding them on a black background

How to Eat Chorizo?

Essential in many Spanish dishes, the spicy, salty and aromatic flavours of chorizo lend themselves to many different chorizo recipes. Try it our chorizo salad with sweet potato recipe.

Good quality dry cured chorizo can be eaten raw. Like salami, slice up and hit it up with some Spanish cheese, zingy pickles and olives.

For this easy summer salad recipe, I decided to fry them up for a crispy and salty texture. A well seasoned chorizo is a flavour bomb. It makes everything taste better.

Recipe Overview

Flavour/Texture: There is a stark contrast of flavours and texture in this mango salad recipe which I love.

Mango brings honey sweetness and soft textures that compliment delicate creamy avocado slices.

Then to give the salad a sense of mouthfeel, I scatter a generous amount of crispy chorizo. This not only adds texture but intensive flavours. After frying chorizo, the aromatic and spicy flavours are amplified.

Ease: It is a fairly simple salad to prepare with 4 main ingredients. There is not much cooking involved, just frying up chorizo.

The only part of this salad that requires a little more attention is slicing the mango and avocado. We want thin and relatively uniform slices of mango and avocado so we can fan them out when we plate.

Time: Depending on how you might want to slice mango and avocado, at most will take 20 minutes to prep and then 5 minutes or so to fry crispy chorizo.

Ingredients

Here are the ingredients you will need for this Mango Avocado Salad with Crispy Chorizo:

Dry cured chorizo: I usually use the dry cured chorizo in most of my cooking only because it is easy to store and readily available at our local deli.

Mango: I used Kensington Pride mangoes for this mango avocado salad. With a strong mango aroma, it has delicious sweet flesh. When ripe, it is slightly softer to touch.

Avocado: Personally, I prefer Hass avocados. The creamy and soft texture is fantastic for salads and cooking.

Watercress: I seriously feel this is such an underappreciated vegetable. I love using watercress in salads, and we love it in Chinese cooking.

Raw watercress has a peppery taste similar to mustard and wasabi. Once cooked, the pepperiness disappears, leaving a sweet grassy flavour great in soups and stir fries.

Variations and Substitutions

Chorizo substitute: If you can’t find chorizo, you can substitute it with salami. It is best to purchase uncut salami so you can slice it slightly thicker than the precut versions you find in the deli.

Vegan option: To make it a vegan option, omit the crispy chorizo and replace with toasted walnuts.

Roughly chop ½ cup of walnuts and dry toast with dried chilli, cumin powder and smoked paprika. This will add the crunch and smokiness that chorizo brings to the salad. Also, swap honey for rice bran or maple syrup in the dressing.

Watercress substitute: Watercress can sometimes be trickier to find. Rocket leaves will also be suitable as a replacement.

Instructions

Step by step instructions for how to make Mango Avocado Salad with Crispy Chorizo:

How to Make Crispy Chorizo

Remove the casing of the cured chorizo.

Thinly slice chorizo. Then cut slices into small strips, about 0.5 cm wide.

Over medium heat, add cut chorizo to a non-stick fry pan. No need to add oil as there will be enough oil from chorizo as it fries.

Fry until crispy. It will take about 5 minutes. Move the chorizo around; otherwise, it may burn.

Drain chorizo on a paper towel.

Crispy baked chorizo bits on paper towels to drain the oil

How To Cut Mango And Avocado Fans

Start with a sharp knife and peel mango.

Slice downwards to mango cheeks as close as possible around the stone in the middle.

Lay mango cheek cut side down. Gently hold onto mango and then start slicing lengthwise. You want thin slices so it is easier to fan out. Repeat until all the mango is sliced.

With each mango cheek, delicately apply pressure and start to fan out the mango. Keep going until you reach the shape you want.

Now repeat the process with avocados.

Cut avocado in half and gently prise the flesh from the peel.

Lay avocado cut side down and gently thinly slice lengthwise.

Delicately apply pressure and start to fan out avocado until the shape you need.

Set aside for assembly.

I didn’t use the middle section of the mangos in the salad, but it is never wasted. My kids ate them up in a flash!

Sliced avocado and mango on a black speckled plate

How to Prepare Watercress

Trim the stalks of watercress.

Place watercress in cold water and rinse well. Whilst still in water, separate the watercress into smaller pieces and remove any limp sprigs and yellow leaves.

Drain and give the watercress a good shake to remove the excess water.

How to Prepare the Wholegrain Mustard Dressing

Add wholegrain mustard, olive oil, apple cider vinegar, honey, salt and pepper in a mason jar. Shake well. Taste and adjust with additional salt and pepper.

How To Assemble The Salad

You can serve this salad on one large platter, but I prefer to have individual plates.

Separate the ingredients into 4 equal portions.

Start with mango and avocado slices. Gently place a few slices of mango, then avocado next to it and repeat in the middle of the plate.

Then place watercress around the fruit. Finally, scatter crispy chorizo on one side of the watercress.

To serve, drizzle wholegrain mustard dressing.

Expert Tips: How to Make This Salad Perfectly

Mango selection: I recommend choosing mangos that are not overly ripe for the mango salad recipe as it will be more challenging to slice.

Choosing avocado: As avocado ripens, it will turn a darker green or nearly black colour. However, that is not always the case. Many ripe avocados stay a bright green colour. It is best to rely on touch. If the avocado yields to firm, gentle pressure, it is ripe and ready to eat.

You would want a medium firm avocado for this salad; otherwise, similar to mango, it will be mushy when sliced.

Slicing technique: Use a sharp knife for the mango and avocado fans. There is no rush so take your time slicing the fruit. Be gentle when pressing the fan open.

If you are finding slicing mango and avocado fans a little challenging, I would cut the mango and avocado into cubes. Then toss together with watercress, crispy chorizo and salad dressing.

For me, It is better to have a bowl of delicious salad than one that you are not happy with the presentation.

Great Main Dishes for This Salad

A great mango avocado salad needs a great main to go with it. Here are some ideas:

Hilachas: Guatemalan shredded beef stew, tucked inside a corn tortilla is so yum!

For a fresh, tangy, and garlicky punch, try this cilantro lime chicken or for a lovely pasta dish, this pasta with peas and oyster mushrooms is perfect.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I make this salad ahead of time?

You can fry crispy chorizo and prepare the salad components ahead of time.

However, it is best to slice avocado when ready to plate. Mango is ok to slice ahead and store in an airtight container, but avocado will oxidise quickly. Depending on the duration, I am unsure if lemon juice would help in this case.

Can I transport this salad?

Prepare all the components except for the avocado. It will work best to slice the avocado at the time of plating. Pack in separate containers to transport.

What to do with leftover watercress?

Watercress is often sold in large bunches, and you may not need all of it.

Save the remaining watercress and use it in other salads such as our Gem Avocado and Watercress Salad or Apple, Pear and Watercress Salad. Alternatively, give it a quick stir fry with garlic and chilli.

The smoky chorizo flavours over crisp watercress leaves, soft sweet mango and creamy avocado slices is not only delicious but a refreshing start to the meal.

Finished with a tangy honey mustard salad dressing, this is the mango avocado salad you need to make all summer long.

That’s all!

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