AVOCADO SALAD: great for beginners needing a template; high fibre; heart healthy, budget friendly.

Bargain priced avocados: a delight for nearly spring...

Avocado Salad: a template for colourful, healthy
multi-textured mix of simple salad ingredients  

When food budgets are tight, we take our pleasures where we can.

Cut-price avocados, which seem to be in abundance in most supermarkets right now, is sure to be 1 of them.  

A great source of culinary delight, avocados are on sale at £1'ish each, sometimes much less -- under half the price of a perfectly ripe specimen. 

And they're are not just for guacamole or the ubiquitous sourdough toast with poached eggs.  They're brilliant in smoothies, soups, pilaffs and vegetable sides.

But the delights of the lovely green fruit will not be yours until you have mastered the art of ripening rock-hard ones.  Have a look at 67's sister post this week: How to...the Art of Avocados and everything you need to know which provides the experts' instructions on the best way to ripen an avocado.  

This post's simple salad for a small household is a real treat, mouthwatering, delicious and satisfying.  

But it also offers a beginer's guide to creating the right proportion of ingredients for a thrilling salad.  It will turn you into a pro.  

Cost: £1-2, depending on the salad drawer

Feeds: 1 or 2

Ingreds:

Salad:

1/3-1/2 small crunchy lettuce like baby gem, or equivalent
2-3 inches/5-7 cm cucumber
1-2 handfuls washed baby tomatoes or 1-2 standard tomatoes
1/2 peeled ripe avocado
a few ounces of cold leftover meat or cooked prawns (opt)
Extras: (opt)
2-3 radishes, sliced thin
1 stick celery, washed, trimmed at top and bottom

lightly toasted pine nuts OR sunflower &/or pumpkin seeds

crumbled crispy bacon 

Dressing for 1, easily multiplied:

2 tbsp good olive oil

1 tbsp vinegar, pref basamic, OR white or red wine vinegar OR lemon or lime juice

1/2 tbsp Dijon, wholegrain or other mild mustard

1/2-1 small clove garlic, finely grated (opt but recommended)

1/8 tsp sugar or a dash of maple syrup (opt but recommended)

salt & pepper

Method:

1. Mix dressing ingredients in a small jar with a tight fitting lid (washed empty herb jars from M&S  are ideal here); shake vigorously until emulsified ( completely blended & thick); keep cool till needed 
2. Just before serving, separate lettuce leaves at the base, remove grotty bits of leaf or core, wash in a solution of 9 parts water & 1 part white vinegar; pat dry with paper towel.  Slice into 1/2in/2 cm pieces
3. Wash & peel cucumber but leave a space between each strip, leaving a striped appearance; slice thinly at a slant  (see below)
4. Wash & halve baby tomatoes or cut whole tomatoes into small bite-size chunks; spray with olive oil, salt lightly; rest
5. Add the 3 items to the bottom of a good-sized bowl; mix loosely
6. Peel half an avocado (leaving the stone in the remaining half, painting with oil or lemon juice and covering tightly with cling firm); vertically cut in 2 the remaining half; cut into med slices OR chop into generous-sized chunks; spread out on a board; sprinkle liberally with lemon juice to prevent discolouring.  Add to bowl.
7. Cut protein, if using, into bite sized chunks; add to bowl
8. Lightly mix with tongs, being careful not to break up the avocado
9. Vigorously shake dressing again; pour over enough to moisten but not overwhelm 
10. Dressing will keep in fridge 3-5 days

Comments:

'I do love a perfectly ripe avocado with a few shards of protein and the usual crisp lettuce, cucumber and fragrant tomatoes.  Bathed in a balsamic vinaigrette, it's first class.  Roll on spring and summer!'  Retired writer

Some ways of preparing salad veg

Tips:

If you liked this avocado recipe, you will also like: 

1. Mixed Salads, Perfectly Pretty: simple appealling salads
2. recipes for cooked avocado (surprisingly wonderful): 
   • Avocado Pilau: ambrosial, for slightly underripe avocado
   • Avocado Vichyssoise: almost carb free; warm or chilled

   
   

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Copyright: These salads have been designed by B M Lee/ Bright Sun Enterprises and may only be reproduced in home kitchens.  Not for commercial use.