Sweet and Sour Mango Sauce, with ripe mangos and honey, a sour kick from balsamic, a pinch of smoked paprika and a chili, makes this a sauce for a variety of dishes.
Tropical Sweet and Sour Sauce
Having spent many years dining on Asian food (two of my sons are half Asian), I realized that every culture has its own version of a sweet and sour sauce.
A sweet and sour sauce, is just that; sweet, usually from sugar, and sour, usually from vinegar. Everything else that goes into it depends on what you’re cooking.
The more years you spend in a kitchen creating recipes, you sooner you realize that every recipe becomes fair game for your own interpretation.
Kabobs and Mango Sauce
While there are so many dishes that are great with a sweet and sour sauce, nothing I’ve ever had, beats this homemade sweet and sour mango sauce on kabobs!
Chicken kabobs, seafood kabobs or veggie kabobs, this sauce will make your guests think a professional chef prepared it!
Cooking With Fruit
I grew up in a Mediterranean influenced home. My mom was Syrian and Middle Eastern food is often prepared with fruit in the savory dishes, especially dried fruits.
On this summer afternoon, I was assembling a large amount of chicken thighs, onto kabob sticks.
Prepping these in advance, freezing some and keeping some in the fridge for a few meals, makes meal time faster on busy days.
Besides the wonderful flavor, that comes from cooking over fire, I knew I wanted to compliment the kabobs with a tropical sauce, brushed on while grilling.
Tropical Mangos
I knew I wanted to brush them with something different than my traditional sauces or poultry recipes; I was after something that tasted of summertime.
This sauce is now a favored sauce in my kitchen for fish, poultry and veggie kabobs. The sauce is sweet from mangos and honey, sour from white balsamic vinegar and a squeeze of lemon.
Then, I went crazy adding lots of my other favorite ingredients: chili pepper, smoked paprika, turmeric, garlic of course, and I am telling you, this sauce is simply amazing.
What Is A Sweet and Sour Sauce?
Obviously a sweet and sour sauce is a sauce made to balance the combination of something sweet with something sour.
Often, in Asian cooking, the sweet and sour sauce base is made from sugar and vinegar, but there are a variety of ways to obtain that balance.
Having a Mediterranean heritage, my cooking creations often rely on the ingredients I grew up cooking with.
The use of honey is often my preferred sweetener in cooking, or dates that have been made into a syrup.
Making Sweet and Sour Mango Sauce
If you have fresh mangos, great; if not, frozen mangos work just fine too. Gather the ingredients, toss them into a pot and simmer about 20 minutes, puree, and you’ve got the perfect sauce to use on whatever your occasion calls for!
It just so happens that in summertime, I love to skew everything on sticks in the morning and pop them on the grill just before dinner.
For this reason, I created a mango sauce that was both sweet and sour, easy to make and ready when the grill is fired up.
I often make a huge batch, freeze some in portions, to last throughout the lazy days of summer!
Ingredients Needed
- Mango
- Lemon juice
- Balsamic vinegar
- Honey
- Garlic
- Fresh Chili Pepper
- Smoked Paprika
- Turmeric
- Cumin
- Salt
Equipment Needed
- Blender or food processor
- Sauce pan
- Measuring cup
- Measuring spoons
- Citrus press
- Whisk
- Stovetop or burner
Sweet and Sour Mango Sauce
Ingredients
- Mango – 2 cups, cubed
- Lemon juice – 2 tbsp
- Balsamic vinegar – 1 tbsp
- Honey – 2 tbsp
- Garlic – 2 cloves
- Fresh Hot Chili Pepper – 1 teaspoon, chopped
- – 2 tsp
- Turmeric – 1/2 tsp
- Cumin – 1 tsp
- Salt – 1 tbsp
Instructions
- Place all the ingredients in a sauce pan. Bring to a boil, lower and simmer for 20 minutes with a lid on.
- Once the sauce is cool, puree it.
- Use now, or keep in a jar in the fridge for up to a week!
Nutrition
I believe the table... that place that draws people to gather, is the most powerful symbol of togetherness. All that happens before the table is set, the planning, the gathering, the preparing, are all an intricate part of the dance that create the mood of celebration to share with friends and loved ones.