Initially, when I learned that I had a profound nightshade intolerance, I tried to create nightshade substitutes that looked, smelled and tasted as close to the foods I could no longer eat as possible. Two years on, I have learned that a wiser approach is to explore foods I never tried before and to celebrate the foods I can eat.  I have been making mango salsa for a while now, however, the addition of crisp pieces of pear from our garden tree turned out to be totally inspired.

• 1 red or 2 yellow mangoes chopped
• 3 pears that are just starting to ripen chopped to half the size of the mango pieces
• 2 tablespoons of red onion chopped fine
• 1/4 cup chopped greens of spring onion (I cut from the ends of an entire bunch with my kitchen scissor)
• 1 tbsp dried mint (I dry my own but we have organic peppermint at The Pantry).
• 1 tsp dried parsley (Using fine dried herbs helps to distribute the flavour more evenly. A lot of people use cilantro in their salsas. I just have never been a fan but it can be used in place of the parsley.)
• 1 tsp course sea salt or rock salt
• coarse ground black pepper which delivers flavour contrast to the sweet fresh flavours of the fruit. I like to freshly grind some into my dishes but we have organic coarse pepper at The Pantry. 
• approximately 1/4 cup fine virgin olive oil. Allessia is one of my favourites.
• approximately 1/4 cup lime juice

I like to make this the day before so the flavours have time to meld. I serve sour cream on the side. You can add dill weed, parsley and basil to your sour cream. This is not only a great topping for taco chips but also is a perfect side to grilled porkchops. Season your meat with dried mint, basil, sea salt and black pepper a few hours before grilling for extra juicy results!