Key Lime Mango Crab Cake Salad

Name: Key Lime Mango Crab Cake Salad
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 45 min
Yield: 4
Ingredients: 1 recipe Northern Neck Crab Cakes (from this site); 12 ounces baby arugula; 1/2 small red onion (finely diced); 1 red bell pepper (finely diced); 1/2 english cucumber (halved vertically, then cut into thin half-moons); 2 large mangoes (cut into bite-sized chunks); 3 radishes (thinly sliced); 1 clove garlic (minced); 1 heaping teaspoon pommery mustard (whole grain); 2 tablespoons key lime juice (or from a Persian lime); 5 tablespoons olive oil; 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt; 1/4 teaspoon black pepper (freshly ground); 2 tablespoons cilantro (freshly chopped); 1/2 cup mayonnaise; 1 clove garlic (minced); 1 tablespoon key lime juice (or juice from a regular persian lime); 1 teaspoon lime zest; 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt; 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

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Summer fruits are hands-down THE BEST! Say what you will about autumn’s apples and pears (and no – pumpkin is not a fruit). Yes, citrus is glorious in the winter because it’s the only bright spot of sunshine that has a hope of peaking through a gray February day. Rhubarb is a tell-tale herald of spring in a novelty-fruit-kind-of-way. But summer wins with stone fruits like plums, nectarines, cherries and peaches, melons of all variety, berries so deep-red, sweet and juicy, you need to eat them with a bib. And mangoes. Always mangoes. So perfumed, so honey-sweet and so versatile. Like in this Key Lime Mango Crab Cake Salad.

Mango is a star ingredient — even when it’s not THE star ingredient. I mean, I think we can all agree, the crab cake is the real attraction in a crab cake salad, right? But this salad is just lettuce and crab without that luscious honeyed pop of mango.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. I made this at my daughter’s behest. I had a can of lump crab in the fridge and she kept asking, “When are you going to use the crab? Are you going to make crab cakes? I have to be here when you make it”. Jeez! Alright, already!

I decided to kill two birds with one stone and reshoot my favorite crab cakes. You see, when I started blogging three years ago, I didn’t have much skill taking pictures of food and it showed. Looking back, I can see how much I’ve improved, but it also makes me want to revisit some older posts and give them some love. So I thought remake the crab cakes – update the old post while making a new post at the same time! And satisfy Emily’s crab cake cravings. I’m so efficient!

Since I live in South Florida and Key Limes are actually cheaper than regular persian limes, it made sense to use them in both the salad dressing and the garlicky aioli.

I fried up the crab cakes in my cast iron skillet (the way my grandmother, Myne, taught me) and nestled that gorgeous patty on top of our salads, finishing the dish with a healthy swirl of lime-spiked aioli. These salads didn’t last 10 seconds after I snapped the last picture!