Cuban Mango Milkshake: Recipe and Book Review {Around the World in 12 Dishes}

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Looking for a refreshing drink that you can feel good about sharing with your little ones?  This mango milkshake is delicious, plus you can feel very “cultured” while you drink it, as the recipe is from Cuba!

We are catching up on our posts for “Around the World in 12 Dishes,” and this time we are off to Cuba!  (Go here for an overview and wonderful resource list about Cuba).  We found some wonderful picture books and so decided to pick a recipe to go with one of our favorites, A Mango in the Hand: A Story Told Through Proverbs.

This is a really cute book!  I was a bit wary because I was afraid their use of proverbs throughout the story would be a bit forced, but it is actually done very well, so the proverbs (given in Spanish and English) are woven easily into the story.

The story is all about a little boy who is collecting mangoes to serve at dinner on his saint’s day (great opportunity to talk about saints’ days in Catholicism!)  He goes to the mango tree (passing his grandmother’s house, then his uncle’s, and finally his crabby Tía Clara’s house), but it is swarming with bees!  As we follow his attempts to get the mangoes, we also see how he is gently guided by his father, who encourages him to persevere.  But the real lesson comes when he shows kindness to his crabby aunt (by giving her a mango, of course) and discovers how powerful one small act of kindness can be.

It is hard not to be in the mood for mangoes after reading this book, so we decided to make a mango milkshake, adapted from Cooking the Cuban Way.

This is a great, kid-friendly cookbook, with easy to follow recipes.  The original recipe is for a mango-papaya milkshake, but after sampling the papaya, both Monkeys agreed that they would rather leave it out.  (I have grown to like papaya over the years, but it is far from my favorite fruit – especially compared to mango!)  Instead we doubled the amount of mango.

We also added a bit more milk and sugar than in the original (and skipped the ice since I have an old blender that doesn’t do so well with this!), so adjust these amounts according to taste.  To me, this is one of the best parts of making it – getting to do the taste tests!  Monkey also added some honey, since, as he put it, “Honey makes everything gooder.”  (He later amended this to, “Honey gives everything a better taste.”)

Also, remember that if you can’t find fresh mango, frozen mango also works well!

Cuban Mango Milkshake

Ingredients

2 cups diced mango (approx. 2 mangoes)

1 1/2 cups milk

4 T sugar

Honey to taste (optional)

Place all ingredients in blender and puree.  Taste and make any adjustments.  Enjoy!

Check out the other participating blogs to see what they have been cooking up: Adventures In Mommydom, Afterschool for Smarty Pants, All Done Monkey, Crafty Moms Share, Maroc Mama, Creative World of Varya, Glittering Muffins, Kid World Citizen, Mermaids’ Makings, The Educators’ Spin On It and The Mommy Talks. If you try a dish from Cuba, we’d love to hear about it! You can link up your dish or craft here to share your post on all the participating blogs: