Monday 22 August 2011

An amazing avocado



I went to whole foods yesterday prior to the first ever "COOKING CLUB" that me and my gal friends have been meaning to start for months. Crab dip with naan bread and roasted peaches with vanilla ice cream was on the menu. We wanted to start simple. I was in the mood for a caprese style salad and was intent on picking up some bocconcini. I also needed to grab a baguette in case my naan bread (rising tentatively in a bag under my arm) did not work out. 

As I entered the store I saw the most mind boggeling pile of avocados I had ever seen. You can see one depicted above, I'm not sure the size of the avocado comes across but it was huge! I looked around the store to see if anyone else was reacting to these monsters. I picked one up and to my surprise, despite the bright green colour, the avocado was soft; it had the perfect give. I bought two.

I made a delicious midnight snack using a quarter of the avocado chopped, with chopped baby tomatoes, chopped mozerella, and a generous amount of olive oil, basamic vinegar and sea salt. The mock brushetta, once stirred became creamy from the soft avocado. It was served up on the baguette that was not required at cooking club.

The creaminess of the avocado inspired the simple recipe below.


Orzo, new potato and mixed veggie salad with creamy avocado

Ingredients
  • 3 - 4 cups cooked orzo, rinsed under cold water and drained well 
  • 3 small (2") new potatoes boiled and cooled, chopped
  • 1/4 - 1/3 cup of each chopped grape tomatoes, yellow pepper, red pepper, spinach, grilled yellow zucchini
  • 5 chopped sun-dried tomatoes

Directions
  1. Chop all of the veggies and make the avocado dressing (below) while the orzo is cooking. 
  2. Toss everything together and eat :) 

Avocado Dressing

Ingredients
  • 3/4 of my huge avocado (soft but not mushy)
  • 2 tbsp white wine vinegar
  • 1 crushed garlic clove
  • 1-2 tsp honey (agave or maple syrup for vegans)
  • salt and pepper

Directions
  1. Mash, mash, mash.

Notes

You can use anything you want in the salad but I would make sure to have sun-dried tomatoes or olives in there for the saltiness. Also the peppers add a crunch that I also find essential. Spinach and tomatoes, I cannot live without. The potatoes make the dish feel more substantial and the zucchini I just had left over. I find grilled vegetables in salads adds something extra special.

Also, I really wished I had lemons or limes on hand to use instead of the white wine vinegar although it turned out better than I expected. Also, I used too much garlic (3 cloves) and was regretting that. So don't over do the garlic, unless you roast it, that would be yummy I'm sure.

No comments:

Post a Comment