Main dish salads for dinner are a quick and easy option solving the dinner time dilemma.
Start out with any variety of greens — such as romaine, green or red leaf lettuce, arugula or spinach — and top it with a hearty ingredient. Today’s recipe is topped with avocado slices.
Avocados are part of my weekly diet, I can’t get enough of them. If making this salad tonight, choose ripe avocados. To judge whether it’s ripe, hold it in the palm of your hand and press against the skin slightly it should yield to gentle pressure. If you don’t plan on using them, say, for several days, buy them nearly rock hard and store them at room temperature. They’ll begin to ripen in several days. Once ripe, store them in the refrigerator, where they’ll keep several more days. You can ramp up this salad even more, topping it with leftover cooked chicken or salmon.
There’s just something about making your own vinaigrette for a salad. It tastes so fresh. The one below is enough for four salads.
50 Shades of Greens Salad with Avocado
Serves: 4 (generously)
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Total time: 15 minutes
For the vinaigrette:
3 Tbsp. good quality olive oil
1 Tbsp. plus 1 teaspoon fresh lime juice
2 tsp. honey
Big pinch of kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
For the salad:
1 large head Boston lettuce, largest outer leaves and damaged leaves removed; remainder washed, dried and torn into bite-size pieces
3/4 cup loosely packed mix of fresh flat and curly parsley leaves
1 small bunch frisée, torn into pieces
1 cup arugula leaves
2 to 3 green onions, thinly sliced on the diagonal
1 ripe but firm avocado
In a small bowl, combine all the vinaigrette ingredients and whisk until thoroughly emulsified.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the lettuce, parsley, frisée, arugula and green onions. Drizzle with about 2 tablespoons of the vinaigrette. Evenly divide the salad greens onto four salad plates.
Cut the avocado in half and remove the pit. Scoop out the flesh in one piece. Slice each half crosswise in thin half-moons. Drizzle the avocado with a bit of the vinaigrette and then arrange several slices on each salad. Add another drizzling of vinaigrette, if desired, over each salad.
Adapted from Fine Cooking magazine 2005.
Tested by Susan M. Selasky in the Free Press Test Kitchen.
200 calories (77 percent from fat), 17 g fat (3 g saturated fat), 12 g carbohydrates, 4 g protein, 130 mg sodium, 0 mg cholesterol, 8 g fiber.
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