Strawberry Chow (Spicy Pickle Salad) Recipe

By Chris De La Rosa
Culinary Specialist

If you grew up in the Caribbean, especially the southern Caribbean, “Chow” would have been a key part of your childhood experience.

It is spicy pickle, loaded with garlic and citrus juice, along with Scotch Bonnet Peppers. Usually half-ripe mango is the key ingredient, but we use just about any fruit we can find, and when all fails, we even use cucumber.

With a good batch of fresh strawberries from my garden (watch the video) and since they were a bit tart, I thought I’d rock a quick chow.

You’ll Need…

2 lbs strawberries (green and red mix)
1 clove garlic
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 orange (juice)
1/2 medium red onion (sliced thin)
1 scotch bonnet pepper (crush or sliced thin)
2 tablespoon cilantro
1/2 lime (juice)

Important: If doing this recipe gluten-free, please go through the entire list of ingredients to make sure they meet with your specific gluten-free dietary needs. Be sure to wash your hands immediately after handling such hot peppers as Scotch Bonnets.

Since this is a pretty basic recipe, I didn’t take the usual step-by-step pictures you normally get. However there is the video, below, you can follow along with.

Wash and trim your strawberries. If they are large you can cut them in 1/2 if you wish, and if you prefer to remove the stems, by all means do so.

Crush the garlic with the salt and juice of the orange.

It’s now time to assemble. Place the prepared strawberries into a large bowl, top with the garlic puree, then add the thinly-sliced onion, followed by thinly-sliced Scotch Bonnet Peppers. Remember you can leave out the seeds if you’re overly concerned about the raw heat, and you may also crush the scotch bonnet along with the garlic if you wish. I like leaving it sliced thinly as one can identify the pepper and avoid if necessary.

Add the cilantro (we’d normally use Shado Beni  on the islands) along with the lime juice and give it all a good mix. Place in the fridge to marinate for 30 minutes, then enjoy. Best enjoyed with adult beverages (smile). Feel free to add some freshly ground black pepper if you wanted.

I added some tomato to the chow (yellow cherry) but that is totally optional.

This recipe is courtesy of Gourmand Award winning cookbook author and founder of CaribbeanPot.com, Chris De La Rosa. With over 450 printable recipes with step by step cooking instructions and demo videos, PLUS over 1 million social/fan connections globally every month, CaribbeanPot.com is the world’s #1 resource of Caribbean Culinary Culture. Connect with Chis on Instagram: www.instagram.com/caribbeanpot/.