A Simple Salad with Avocado
A Simple Salad that is just that… SIMPLE! It can be made in about five minutes and requires only 8 ingredients, most of which are likely sitting in your kitchen as you read this. This salad is light and compliments almost any dinner but can stand on its own, too.
Winter came back with a vengeance yesterday and now the sun is shining today. Such is the moodiness of a Michigan winter. All truth be told though, I do love the cozy blanket of snow covering the brown grass and the puffy flakes in the air. It signals a time to hunker down, eat lots of nourishing soups and rustic lasagnas, and catch up on that long reading list. So, as I do, I have decided to talk about the opposite of a hearty meal. That said, this simple salad does compliment the warm and hearty meals perfectly. Be it soup, casserole, pasta, or meat and potatoes, this salad is the perfect sidekick! (And a fabulous midnight snack too! 😉 Or, a 9:30 snack if you’re like me and love to go to bed early.)
When we are invited to dinner, I’m always happy to offer to bring the salad. I definitely have my go-to recipes. This salad happened as sort of an accident. I started out with my basics. It has the usual favorites of parmesan cheese and some red onion. The light and crispness of Butter or Boston lettuce really adds to the simplicity of the salad as well.
I made the typical lemon/olive oil/salt/pepper dressing. And that was going to be it. But then I saw some avocados sitting on the shelf, perfectly ready to serve. And I really, really wanted to put them in the salad. The only problem was that they would turn brown before we got to our friends’ house. I didn’t really want to attempt to cut avocado and subsequently try to navigate someone else’s kitchen with avocado hands either. If there is a graceful way to cut an avocado, please let me know!
Since these friends have know us forever and understand how I operate (aaaand would forgive me if my experiment took a turn for the worse!), I decided it would probably be okay to do a little experimenting. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Here is the step-by-step:
Wash, dry, and tear 1-2 heads of Boston or Butter Lettuce. Put it in a medium to large serving bowl.
Shave a block of parmesan cheese. Or easier yet, buy the pre-shaved parmesan and add it to the serving bowl.
Cut a red onion in half and thinly slice it. Add as much as you’d like to the bowl.
Cover the bowl and set it aside.
Get a mason jar.
Pour in an equal amount of lemon juice and olive oil. (I’ve been buying pre-squeezed lemon juice recently because squeezing the lemon hurts my dry hands.) I usually do about 1/3 cup of each. Add about 2-3 teaspoons of salt and a few grinds of fresh pepper. Shake until it is all combined.
Cut 1-2 avocado into square (ish) pieces and add them to the mason jar.
Gently, gently, gently shake the jar so that everything combines and the avocado gets hit with the lemon juice.
A few minutes before you sit down to dinner, give the jar a few extra shakes and then combine and toss it with the lettuce, cheese and onion.
Easy peasy!
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Serving Bowl- no longer available, but I like this one also from McGee & Co. And this one with the reactive glaze from Target is lovely.
Lemon Juicer- I have a manual lemon squeezer similar to this one and it helps to cut down on lemon juice hurting my hands. I’m intrigued by the simplicity of this citrus juicer and like that the measurements are right on it to cut down on guessing.
Kitchen Cabinet color- Farrow & Ball Studio Green
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