A nice Whole-30 compliant accompaniment for grilled meats or fish.

As I blogged the other day, I started the Whole30 Challenge on Monday. Part of the challenge — in my mind anyway — is preparing interesting foods that distract you from the fact that you’re missing out on favorites like dairy and whole grains.

A friend came over the other night with a nice piece of salmon. I fired up the Traeger, placed the seasoned salmon on a cedar plank, and cooked it outside while we chatted. I’d already prepared some mango salsa to go with it, following a recipe I’d found on the Traeger website. But that recipe called for honey or agave sweetener, which is verboten on Whole30. So I simply omitted it.

Here’s the recipe as I made it:

• 1 cup mango, diced. I keep frozen mango in my freezer for smoothies and that’s what I used. It’s quick and easy to incorporate into recipes, including my mango chutney.
• 1/4 onion, finely chopped. The original recipe called for a red onion and I didn’t have one.
• 1 small jalapeño pepper, minced. The original recipe called for habanero pepper, which I believe is hotter, but I used what I had on hand.
• Juice of 2 limes. In hindsight, I think I could have done it with just one lime.
• 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped.

Combine all ingredients. Cover and store in refrigerator until ready to use.

This was excellent on the salmon. It was also good with my egg and onion scramble this morning for breakfast.

On Wednesday, I went cherry picking with a friend and brought home about 10 pounds (or more?) of Rainier cherries. The owner of the orchard where I pick often makes cherry salsa. I realized that her recipe was likely very much like the one above, but with cherries instead of mangos. So I made a batch. I’ll eat it with some grilled pork chops for dinner tonight. Yum.