Tomato and Avocado Salad

If you’ve read even a few recipes here, you know I love meat – especially… well, meat. What you may not have figured out by now is that I also love salads. They’re a great way to make sure I’m getting enough nutrition, and there are a lot of salad veggies I really like a lot. I’ve even been known to eat grape or cherry tomatoes right out of the box! And you haven’t lived till you’ve split an avocado and eaten it right out of the shell, with or without dressing.

You’ll notice that I did a pretty good little set up for this recipe, huh? See, I mentioned the tomatoes and then the avocado. And since those are the two m… never mind. Let’s just go have some fun with salad.

Ingredients:

4 cups avocado (about 4 regular sized)
2 cups grape or cherry tomatoes
2 cups cucumber
1 cup red onion
1/4 cup fresh cilantro
2 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons lime juice
1/4 cup olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

Peel the garlic cloves and dice them as finely as possible.

In a small bowl, combine garlic, lime juice, oil, and salt and pepper (if using). Stir well and let sit while you prepare the veggies.

Cut tomatoes in half, top to bottom.

Cut avocado in half, top to bottom. Remove seed, and peel. Cut into cubes about the size of the tomatoes you will be using.

Peel cucumbers and cut into cubes. Again, make them about the same size as the tomatoes.

Chop the red onion into a fine dice. (You don’t want big pieces here.)

Chop cilantro roughly (large pieces). Remove stems.

Put all veggies in a big bowl. Add most (but not all) of the cilantro. Add the dressing and toss to coat.

When you serve the salad, top with remaining cilantro.

Notes:

You can serve this by itself, both as a separate course or with the entree. For instance, if you’re serving a Mexican meal, you could add some of this to the plate as a “palette cleanser” between bites of chili.

You can also put it on a bed of lettuce or spinach leaves. Personally, I go for spinach because it’s so good for you, especially when it’s fresh. But I’ve also used romaine, mixed greens and others. I just don’t use iceberg lettuce, because it’s basically worthless from a nutritional standpoint.

This recipe is enough for up to 8 salad servings, but you could make it for two to four as a main course, all-salad meal. If this is your route, add some good bread and a glass of wine and call it a day… er, night. Whatever. I’m just saying, it’s a great meal all by itself.

For those of you who are watching your weight, you can reduce the amount of olive oil by half. And if you really want a low-calorie salad, just get rid of the oil all together.

If you’re planning to serve this salad as your main course, you may want to add some corn, or perhaps some crumbled cheese. I love this with blue cheese!

I’ve also been known to omit the cucumber and prepare this recipe with the tomato, avocado and onion slices, then toss with the dressing and top with cilantro. This variation works extremely well with Mexican dinners.

Try this one out, and feel free to adjust and adapt. But please do be sure to come back and leave a comment telling me what you did, and how it went. And of course,

Play with your food!

Lane

Did you like this recipe? What recipes would you like to learn? Leave me a comment and tell me your thoughts! (And don’t forget to LIKE this post!) Share it using the tiles below.

Follow me on Twitter | LIKE Manly Kitchen on Facebook