This Super-Easy Ceviche Is Full of Skin-Boosting Ingredients

Well+Good’s recipe writer Tatiana Boncompagni is a wellness reporter, group fitness instructor, and mom of three based in New York. She’s also the co-founder of Sculptologie. She believes that truly good food nourishes both the body and the soul, and that healthy food should be easy to make and even easier to enjoy. 

Ceviche is one of those foods I never made at home because I thought a) I’d poison myself by eating raw fish and b) finding and making the ingredients I needed, like oversized corn kernels and house-made chili oils, would be just way too much work. (I mean, I'm already making the margaritas from scratch.)

Bottom line: If you can chop and squeeze, you can make ceviche.

To make a classic Peruvian ceviche—ceviches are considered Peruvian in origin but are a staple of many Latin and South American cuisines—you may have to order a few special ingredients online. But you can make a simple, delicious version without a lot of fuss using ingredients you can pick up at almost any grocery store. Bottom line: If you can chop and squeeze, you can make ceviche. As for the fear of poisoning yourself: As long as you marinate the fish or seafood in citrus juice for about five hours or longer, the fish isn’t raw but “cooked” by the acid in the lime or lemon juice.

Another reason to add ceviche to your repertoire: It's packed with ingredients that are great for your skin. I like making mine with wild halibut, limes, cilantro, red onion, jalapeño, and cumin. I also add some jicama for crunch and prebiotic fiber, lycopene-rich tomatoes, and avocado for those healthy fatty-acids and creaminess.

My not-so secret ingredient, however, is mango. It not only adds a touch of sweetness to help balance all the acid, salt, and spice in the dish, but mangoes are also full of vitamins C and A. Naomi Whittel, the wellness-world superstar and author of Glow 15, a new, paradigm-shifting health and beauty guide, says she eats mangos regularly for their skin-boosting, anti-inflammatory polyphenols. It's a good thing mangos are at their peak right now.