Ramadan # 4 Green and Gold Kiwifruit Salsa

O Allah, I seek your forgiveness for every sin that my soul made seem to me trivial and small, and continued to make seem insignificant, until it finally entangled me in it.

While entering the grocery store last week, I came across a stand displaying gold kiwifruit.  What attracted me to the stand wasn't the actual fruit, but the freebies sticking out of a pocket below! Inside the pocket were these plastic wrapped green spoons/knives with the words "Cut and scoop" on them.  After closer examination, I discovered that the green spoons/knives were for the kiwifruit. Normally I use a regular knife to peel my kiwifruit and eat it. But this spoon/knife was taking me in another direction.  The knife side is used to cut the kiwifruit in half and the spoon side is used to spoon out the kiwifruit so that you are left with a kiwi skin cup. Pretty neat eh?

Anyhow, I stuck a couple of those spoon-knife packets into my purse and continued to explore the stand.  I pulled off a recipe card (from Zespri Kiwifruit) for green and gold kiwifruit salsa. I was hesitant in trying the recipe out because I had never before tried gold kiwifruit. After a few minutes of deliberation, I decided to go ahead and try it out.  I picked up all of the necessary ingredients, did the rest of my shopping and came home.  

I didn't make the salsa right away because the kiwis weren't that ripe. It actually worked out for me because I had to make an unexpected trip back home, so the kiwis had a few days to ripen on my kitchen counter.  

Some info on kiwifruit (came off the back of the recipe card): -

-Kiwifruit are ripe when they give in to slight pressure.
-Gold kiwifruit will last 3-7 days at room temperature and 12-14 days in the fridge.
-Green kiwifruit will last 3-7 days at room temperature and 24-28 days in the fridge.
-2 kiwifruit have less than 100 calories, more than 230% of your daily Vitamin C and 16% of your daily fiber.
-Kiwifruit also have calcium, iron, Vitamin E, zinc, folate, antioxidants, magnesium, and potassium.

Yesterday afternoon I made the salsa (with some minor alterations to the original recipe) and after R and I broke our fasts, we tried it with corn chips and I have to tell you it ROCKS!!!! Slightly sweet yet tart and oh so yummy!  

Some notes:  I used the spoon and knife utensil to create kiwi cups and it isn't as easy as it looks.  After I made a few cups, I went back to using my knife. I think I would only use the spoon and knife utensil if I wanted to serve the salsa in the cups.

Green and Gold Kiwifruit Salsa

3 Gold kiwifruit (Original recipe said 4)

3 Green kiwifruit (Original recipe said 4)

1/2 large red onion, peeled and finely diced (Original recipe said 1 cup of diced red onion. I cut up the halves and put them into a food processor to save myself time and tears)

2 tbsp fresh cilantro/coriander, washed and chopped

1 tbsp fresh mint, washed and julienned

juice of 3 small key limes (Original recipe said 1 tbsp fresh lime juice)

1 tbsp ground cumin

Slice kiwifruit into halves and peel or spoon out the fruit onto a cutting board. Dice kiwifruit into small cubes.

Put all of the ingredients into a bowl and mix gently. Refrigerate for 1 hour before serving so the flavours can blend together.  Serve with chips or as a side to chicken or fish (or in fish tacos!).