Mango Mania gets fancypants y'all. Not just a salad. It's a salad palette.
This looked promising, especially with mango and GOAT CHEESE. Don't worry - I consumed this salad long before the expiration date. There's no way A would allow me to save a month old salad in the fridge. :P
I'm impressed by how many vegetables they managed to cram into this palette. Peas, watermelon radish (never heard of that. is it because it's green and purple/red?), snap peas, mango, red onion, arugula, spring mix...we could be here for a while y'all. The fat content looks horrifying as usual for a salad. It's okay though because unless you want a salad drenched in dressing, it's perfectly fine to use less.
This was a pretty decent-sized portion. I was amply stuffed having this for dinner one night at work, and I shared this once with A and once with D.
Like I said, I only used about half the dressing, maybe a little less, just to coat the leaves so that they aren't too dry. The mango was super tart and crunchy (crunchy mango = no bueno), which means it's not ripe. Unfortunately, that is to be expected with a refrigerated salad. Good textural variety and crunch with the snap peas, radish, and cream goat cheese. Sadly the goat cheese flavor dominated this salad such that it masked the dressing, which is a darn shame. I saved the other half of the dressing to use again with another salad. If you like the ginger dressing served at Japanese restaurants, you will like this mango ginger dressing. By itself it's quite acidic/sour and tangy but tossed with some leafy greens, it is delicious!
Overall, I really like this salad. The tang, crunch, and goat-cheesiness complements just about anything that I eat, mostly because it hits most of my flavor preferences. Would I make a Trader Joe's run just to get this salad? Nah. It's good but not THAT good. At $4.99, it is a bit pricier than some of the other salads, but I'd definitely pick it up in a crunch for work or travel. Or for a I-can't-decide-what-to-eat-but-homegirl-is-definitely-not-cooking-tonight mood.
TL;DR: Trader Joe's Salad Palette with Mango. Generously portioned vegetarian salad with goat cheese and underripe crunchy mango. 7 out of 10.
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