South American ceviche was introduced widely to Canada a few years back, but we’ve really only been exposed here to the kind made with whitefish (which is delicious). Using lime juice or other acids to cook food is much more common in Ecuador and Peru than just with fish dishes:

“There’s a general misconception that ceviche should always have fish or seafood. Yes, the most popular ones do include those ingredients. However, growing up in Ecuador we had ceviches made with chochos (a lupini bean), with hearts of palm, with mushrooms, chicken (fully cooked of course), broccoli / cauliflower. In the southern city of Macara, there’s even a ceviche de carne made with beef.”

Laylita’s Recipes: Mango ceviche

With that in mind, I’m making a mango ceviche! Recipe is from Laylita’s Recipes, which has been a really useful English-language collection of Ecuadorian recipes. It’s straightforward, though a bit messy, between peeling and dicing all those mangos, and juicing all that citrus.

It’s really tasty and refreshing – the acidity of the lime juice meets the mango sweetness, and the red onion, cilantro, and hot pepper make it into a very fresh, savoury salad. It’s a similar flavour profile to the sweet-and-tart aji de tomate de arbol on chocos I tried earlier; I really like it.