Guacamole is a winning spread-dip and it is the go-to dish when avocados/pears are in season. However, as the season goes on, I like to apply different approaches to eating and enjoying them. I have shared with you adding pears to salads with mangoes, cucumbers and canned beans like black beans. The other day, I wanted to have it as a salad with just one other major ingredient for texture contrast – cucumbers. Keeping the pears chunky made a welcome difference.
Avocado is the type of fruit that once you cut it, use it immediately. It quickly oxidizes and handling it too much by tossing in a salad can make it mayonnaise-soft serving more as a dressing. And that’s okay because sometimes that’s what you want. However, I also like to have avocado in a salad as the ingredient and not really as a dressing. There are different varieties of avocado, each with its own texture and hue that lend themselves well to staying firm when worked into a salad. Regardless of the variety you have available to you, you can make the salad by keeping this irresistible creamy fruit chunky. The important thing is not to use an overly ripe avocado.
A few other things to note about the salad I am sharing with you today.
● The other main ingredient was cucumbers. Removing some of the seeds and patting the cucumbers dry helped to keep the salad from becoming mushy with the release of extra moisture. Finely minced hot peppers and lots of fresh cilantro/coriander with a sprinkling of sea salt were the other ingredients used to season and flavour the salad.
● 2 teaspoons of fresh lime juice was all that was needed to keep the colour of the salad fresh.
● A flexible silicone spatula (found in most kitchens these days) was used to toss the salad. The material and flexibility reduce bruising as the salad is tossed/mixed.
● The salad is made just before serving and served immediately.
● The avocado was cut into large chunks to compensate for any flesh that might be lost during the mixing process.
● Cucumbers, hot peppers, lime juice and salt were added first to the bowl and tossed well to mix. This mixture was then topped with the cut avocados and cilantro/coriander. Working quickly and gently, the ingredients were folded together.
Still in the vein of keeping the avocado chunky, here is another salad I made using canned grilled calamari (squid). If you cannot find canned calamari, this salad can definitely be made using grilled fresh calamari or prawns. To make this salad extra special, for the dressing, I used some of my homemade preserved limes. Oh, it was so good – salty, briny and hot from the peppers cured with the limes added next level flavour to this salad.
To make the salad:
● Cut the grilled/canned calamari or shrimp (if using to bitesize pieces) and add to a bowl.
● Using enough to taste – finely mince the preserved limes or lemons and peppers.
● Toss the calamari or shrimp with the lemons and peppers.
● Top with big chunks of avocado and toss gently and quickly to mix. Serve immediately.
Enjoy!
Cynthia
cynthia@tasteslikehome.org
www.tasteslikehome.org
