Paleo Recipe - Asian Shrimp Salad

I bought a few mangos the other day with the intention of using them in a salad dressing.  Today I noticed they were ripe and decided to check my frig to see what kind of a concoction I could come up with.  Hmmm... red cabbage, cilantro, bay shrimp... an idea was coming to mind!  Here is what I came up with and, as my boyfriend said after he ate it "You should open up a restaurant!"  I guess that means he liked it and I hope you do, too!

For those of you who haven't cooked with a fresh mango, there is an easy way to get nice, uniform pieces.  The difficult thing is how to describe how to do this but I will give it a shot! The pit is fairly flat and as you stand the mango up on it's bigger end, you can imagine the pit lying flat in the middle.  Place your knife on top of the mango and cut it almost but not quite in the middle and you will feel the pit.  Carve along side the pit to the bottom and then do the same on the other side. 

Score the mango by cutting through the fruit but not through the skin.  This may take you a few tries before you have perfected this technique.  Here is a photo of 1/2 the mango scored :

Once the mango is scored, you kind of turn it inside out like this:

Once you have it scored and turned it inside out you can easily cut or pull off the chunks!

Paleo Recipe - Asian Shrimp Salad

3 Cups thinly sliced and chopped red cabbage

1 Cup chopped cilantro

1 Carrot grated

1 Red bell pepper

1 Yellow bell pepper

1/8 Cup diced red onion or green onion (scallions)

1/2 Mango cubed

1 lb bay shrimp

1/2 cup sliced or slivered almonds

Dressing

1 Half of a ripe mango cubed

1/2 cup olive oil

1/2 cup walnut oil

Juice from 2 limes

1 T red wine vinegar

1 tsp red pepper flakes

1 tsp dried basil or 3 T fresh basil

10 drops sesame oil (I use hot sesame oil because I like it spicy!)

1 tsp tamari

1 clove garlic

Toss 5 first ingredients in a bowl and set aside.

Place all remaining ingredients, the dressing ingredients, in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth.  

Measure out about 1/2 cup of dressing and mix into first 5 ingredients of the salad.  Plate the salad and top with the shrimp and then sprinkle with almonds.  I also topped the shrimp with a little more dressing because it is sooo tasty!  Here is a photo of the finished dish:

Left over dressing can be stored in the refrigerator for a few days.

Wow!  The combination of flavors and textures will have me recreating this salad time and time again!  If you make it, I would appreciate it if you would give me your honest opinion in a comment.