Description

Who doesn’t savor a wonderful mango? The mango has been cultivated for over 4000 years.There are scores of kinds; my favorite is the ataulfo (pronounced a-tool-fo) or champagne” mango. It is of a consistent medium size and has deep orange-yellow flesh. Local stores carry ataulfo mango as well as Tommy Atkins and kent, also great to eat.

The mango is a great source of vitamin C (2/3 of the daily recommended intake per mango), and a good source of vitamin B6 (12%), folate (18%), and copper (20%), and even has 1.4g protein per cup. It has many antioxidants.

Also in the parfait are strawberries, rich in vitamin C and antioxidants. Our July show is So Many Berries! and I think I’ll share a strawberry marinara then and talk more about strawberry nutrition.

I generally avoid added sweeteners but one of the nice treats in this dish is macerated strawberry. Often people cut strawberry into cubes and mix in sugar, which helps the berries ooze their fruit juice and create a sauce. Instead of sugar I will be using monk fruit extract. Monk fruit comes from southern China and from Thailand. It is sweeter than sugar but has a glycemic index of zero! Its only disadvantages that I know of are that it is more expensive and that, for those who avoid sweeteners, it may create a sweet tooth that relies on sweeteners – and monk fruit may not be available generally when you are out and about.

One comment about measuring strawberries. I have given instructions based on my own observation of volume. For this recipe the exact quantity of berry is not critical but I did find a nice reference, thespruceeats.com/strawberry-equivalents-and-measures-1807480 which states that a pint of strawberries is about 12 ounces (remember that a pound is 16 ounces) and that equals 12 large or 24 medium or 36 small berries, which yield about 1 1⁄2 – 2 cups sliced. Your mileage may vary is what I have seen though!