Mango Verde Con Alguashte (Salvadoran Green Mango With Pepita Seasoning) Recipe

[Photograph: Karla Vasquez]

Mango verde, or mango tierno because it’s recognized all through El Salvador and Central America, is inexperienced mango that’s been reduce from its branches earlier than it ever will get the prospect to ripen. In distinction to its extra mature orange counterpart, this pale inexperienced mango is crunchy—someplace between a carrot and a cucumber in firmness—and packs a pointy, bitter punch.

Salvadorans and Central People know the tingling feeling that mango verde provokes. The sight of it begins us involuntarily salivating. By itself, inexperienced mango’s taste is probably too intense, so Salvadorans attain for 2 key components to assist steadiness it out. The primary is, counterintuitively, contemporary lime juice, which in some way manages to quell a few of that bitter depth. On high of that goes a beneficiant sprinkling of nutty and toasty alguashte, a floor seasoning manufactured from roasted pumpkin seeds and salt.

The ensuing dish is eaten virtually all over the place: as a avenue meals, a pageant snack, an after-school snack, or at a bar alongside a chilly beer.

Inexperienced mango can generally be exhausting to seek out, however do not let that put you off from attempting alguashte: it is also fashionable on different fresh-cut fruits, together with ripe mangoes, jicama, oranges, and different tropical fruits and seeds, in addition to stirred into savory dishes.