Body Care Kits

Papaya and mango bring the sunshine to your table in this Asian salad that's laced with sago pearls which have been soaked in palm sugar syrup spiked with a dash of rum. -- FRANCIS ONG

Red and gold sunrise in salad of surprises
From lemon grass and sago pearls to a dash of soursop pulp or Cointreau, Sylvia Tan concocts tart but healthy Asian salads that also delight the eyes

Fruit salads have come a long way. Remember the days when we all ate fruit salad, sweetened invariably with heavy syrup, from a tin?

While some families still resort to such canned conveniences, fruit salads these days are hopefully healthier - just fresh chopped fruit, sweetened perhaps with light syrup.

In my home, fruit salad is what we serve more and more often after a meal in these diet-conscious days. Yet while it is healthy, it can also be interesting.

The choice of fruit makes a difference. I like to add strawberries and mangoes to the mix for a touch of tartness and fragrance. Crunch could come from the hard fruit - apples or pears or even guava. Colour also is important and these days, we have a wide choice of green fruit - kiwis, green apples and grapes or just a scattering of mint leaves - to give a lift to the colour palette.

And there are still more ways to add interest to basically just cut fruit.

Adding a flavoured syrup, for example. I like to infuse the syrup used with lemon grass and kaffir lime leaves to give a fresh citrusy flavour to the bowl. And sometimes, I spike the syrup. My standby dessert during Chinese New Year is a mandarin orange salad which I marinate lavishly with Cointreau or another orange-flavoured liqueur.

Beyond syrups, I like to add unexpected ingredients to the bowl. And so sometimes, I scatter gold raisins or ruby red dried cranberries over the cut fruit. To ring in a change and a bit of creamy tartness, I may scoop out some passion fruit or soursop pulp and drizzle some of that on top. And while crunch in a fruit salad traditionally comes from the hard fruit, no one says you cannot used caramelised nuts.

In this Asian version of a fruit salad, the added interest comes from sago pearls that have been marinated first in delicious palm sugar syrup, spiked with a bit of rum.

I wanted the luscious colour and sunlit taste of the tropics in this fruit salad, so I used only papaya and mango. They make a lovely red and orange picture, the colours of sunshine, shot through with some translucent pearls!

Fruit salad has indeed come a long way.

But this fruit salad is not just a pretty picture. As hinted at by their vibrant colours, the two fruit are chockful of nutrition.

Papaya and mango have no cholesterol nor saturated fat and aside from the carbohydrates, they both contain vitamin A, calcium, iron and fibre that is good for the digestive system and the heart.

In addition, they are rich sources of antioxidant nutrients such as carotenes, vitamin C and flavonoids. Mangoes also contain a wealth of vitamin E and beta-carotene, which promote the health of the cardiovascular system and also provide protection against colon cancer.

And since neither is cooked, all these nutrients are preserved. It makes a wonderful advertisement for this tropical fruit salad, aside from taste, that is.

Sylvia Tan is a freelance writer.

Labels: fruit salads, health asian fruit salads, mango, papaya