Apple and Lime Salad with Mint

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Last week I was tossing grated apples into a pool of lemon juice for a cabbage salad, and tasted some of them. The apple was inspiringly good soaked in lemon juice and made me want to try a salad with just apple and lime juice, since lime brings out apple flavour better than lemon. The mint adds a cool note but is mostly for colour. Don't skip this salad if you have no mint - use parsley, or, in a pinch, grated carrot instead. (You could also experiment with things like fresh thyme and rosemary. Let me know if you try this; I like both herbs in cooked apple desserts but have never tried them with raw apple before.) This salad is bracingly tart, especially if your apples are not very sweet, so you can add sugar if desired.

Juice limes for about 2 tbs lime juice. Peel and grate two large apples into the lime juice. (Leave peel on if desired; I only had waxed apples so I threw it away.) Taste for sweetness and add sugar if desired. Julienne a dozen or so mint leaves, mix together, and serve to two or three.

8 comments:

Unknown said...

That sounds lovely! Will try that soon.

Unknown said...

I did not know that lime brings out the flavor — I always used lemon. This sounds so refreshing. As usual, a great idea!

Unknown said...

Made it tonight; although I added a bit of chopped Serrano chili to it. Wonderfully fresh and flavorful in winter. As I sat there I suspected that the addition of chopped peanuts or cashews to this would be excellent too.

Pepper said...

Hey Mimi, the lemon would work too, but not as well. I use lemon a lot with cooked apples - apple sauce, apple pie, etc.

Hi Jennifer! Sounds like you had a 'nice, but needs work' reaction to this one. I was toying with the idea of adding salt, and doing a salt/sugar balance on it.

Then I was looking for Renee Schettler articles in the WP again and found a green apple gado-gado.In my opinion the recipe has far, far too much sugar - look at that nutritional info, ai yi yi. I would also omit the raw garlic. Otherwise, a really appealing salad.

sra said...

any danger of the apple turning soggy, or breaking?

Unknown said...

I didn't add any suger to mine and adding 1/2 tablespoon of suger sounds like overkill. I liked it just as it was but the nut idea came from my favorite thai restaurent Sophia's that makes an incredible fish dish with green apple and with a sprinkle of peanut.

Pepper said...

Hi sra, as long as the apple is coarsely grated it should be fine, but this is a salad best served right away. You could keep it a day or so, but the lime juice loses something when it sits.

S said...

I just found your blog and love it. I tried this today with fresh rosemary instead of mint...very refreshing. Thanks for the great posts. :)