My grandpa instilled in us a love for avocados… to him, a salad with dinner would mean slicing a few “rajas” of avocado on the side. His favorite was rice and corn with ketchup and avocado. I know it sounds “kookie”, but you need to try it.
But the love for avocados comes from both sides of the family because once, while visiting my aunt and uncle in Miami, I had to buy a new suitcase to be able to travel with the 5 huge avocados my uncle bought for me to bring back home.
And as much as we love avocados, we don’t have a lot of family recipes using avocados. We just love them so; we do not see them as an ingredient in a recipe. They’re the exclamation point to any dish they’re added to!!! A few slices or wedges of avocado on the side of anything make the meal better. A soup??? Drop a few pieces of avocado inside to make it sing… A sandwich?? Slice a few avocados to make it creamier…
Lately I am training for a ½ marathon and I am trying to eat better and leaner. I am eating more salads, which I like, but I am particularly lazy to make them at home often. I’ve found the best way to fall in love with a salad is to make a killer dressing. Fall in love with a dressing and you’ll fall in love with the salad underneath.
And because I want you to love avocados as much as I do… I want to present to you a very easy avocado based dressing that’s much a dressing as a salsa to brighten other dishes too.
CHOPPED AVOCADO SALAD DRESSING
½ large avocado, cut into little pieces 1 small tomato, diced finely ½ small white onion, diced finely ½ cup Extra Virgin Olive oil 2 tbs Rice Vinegar The juice of 1 small lime ½ tbs kosher salt 1 tsp freshly cracked black pepper
Because the dressing includes avocados, tomatoes and onions, it’s great for a simple lettuce-only salad. You don’t need anything else IMHO. But this dressing also works as a topping for tacos, for burritos, for enchiladas… or as a sauce in sandwiches.
If you want more recipes using Avocados from Mexico, visit this link here. And if you live in the US, check out the coupons for Avocados clicking right here.
To be honest… I was not going to blog about this. This was just the salad I had for lunch yesterday.
This was the order of events…
I am proud to say, I am friends in FaceBook with Top Chef Master Suvir Saran. We have friends in common and once I confused him with someone else because his face was familiar to me. Hello!!!! The mutual friend made me come to my senses and instead of him taking offense with my confussion, he friended me. And we’ve been “FaceBook Friends” ever since.
Suvir shared a picture of a delectable Caprese Salad yesterday in his page and I was inspired to have a Caprese Salad for lunch too. I had some avocado I do not want to go to waste and I added some to my salad. That’s it… that’s how this dish came to be.
Photo Courtesy of Chef Suvir Saran
Today, I shared my pic in Facebook, emulating Suvir’s move and there are so many Likes and compliments that I was urged to share here with you all. People want to learn to make this salad… so, here’s the non-recipe:
CARIBBEAN CAPRESE SALAD
Romaine Lettuce – 3 leaves, cut thinly into strips About 10 GrapeTomatoes, halved 3 slices of Fresh Mozzarella – ripped into smaller pieces 2 wedges of avocado, cut small Olive oil Balsamic Vinegar – the best aged one you can find Salt and Pepper to taste
I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. This was fresh, filling yet left me space to eat some mashed potatoes with broccoli. I know the combination sounds weird, but that’s my lunch menu for you.
Thanks Adela for encouraging me to share this… please, now PIN AWAY!!!! 😉
KarmaFree Cooking 