Mexican Pozole

Who says you can’t have a fiesta in the wintertime? (Especially when it’s 48F outside. It’s like spring in the winter!) Unlike mexicanized restaurant food in the U.S., actual food in Mexico is fresh, vibrant, and light in a satisfying and hearty kind of way. Case in point: a crisp, refreshing version of pozole, served with Applegate pastured bacon and Greek yogurt as toppings. I added chayote squash and navy beans, too — I like having something to chew on in my soups — but as long as you include hominy and chili powder in your batch, you’ll capture the essence of pozole.

Pozole
Makes enough for 4 hearty servings, especially if you include all of the toppings.

1 small onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, chopped
2 cups chicken broth
28 oz. can of tomatoes
15 oz. can of navy beans (my favorite brand of beans is Eden)
1 T. chili powder (I adore chili powder from Spice Hunter)
1 chayote squash, peeled, spongy core removed, flesh cut into 1″ cubes (optional, but adds to the Latin flair of the dish); if you can’t find chayote, opt for sweet potato
15 oz. can of hominy (I prefer yellow, but white works, too)

Optional toppings:
Cooked bacon from pastured hogs (see the Baked Bacon post for tips on finding and preparing top-quality bacon)
Whole-milk Greek yogurt
Chopped cilantro
Lime wedges
Thinly sliced cabbage
Chopped avocado

Drizzle a splash of extra-virgin olive oil into a large soup pot. Add onions and sautée over medium heat for 5 minutes or until the onions are soft but not yet brown. Add garlic, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook for another 2 minutes or until garlic is fragrant and soft. Pour in chicken broth, 1 cup of water, the tomatoes, and the beans. (Seeing as Eden beans are canned in BPA-free cans with sea salt and a pinch of seaweed, I add the contents of the entire can.) Stir in the chili powder and bring to a boil.

Add the chayote/sweet potato, reduce heat to a gentle simmer, and let the squash cook for 10 minutes. Poke a piece to see if it has reached its desired tenderness. (I like mine a bit chewy.) If you’d like to add more chili powder or a dash of sea salt, now’s a good time to do that, too.

Stir in hominy, simmer for another minute to heat everything through, and serve. Garnish with any or all of the optional toppings. Leftover pozole can be refrigerated for up to 5 days — like all tomato-based soups and sauces, the flavor deepens upon standing. You may like it even better the next day.

Enjoy!

Chickpea Avocado Soup

I think creamy veggie soups are the perfect fall dish — they’re thickly hearty and warming, but all the vegetables remind me of summertime. (Ah, my poor garden! But hopefully the winter months will give the freshly laid compost some time to sink in…) And the fact that there are lots of ways to make soup creamy adds to the fun.

Aside from the obvious option of adding cream or coconut milk to your soups, you can purée potatoes, beets, turnips, and other root vegetables; you can purée cooked grains like brown rice, quinoa, or millet; or you can purée cooked/canned beans, lentils, or peas. If you want a cross between a creamy and a chunky soup, mash any of those ingredients instead of puréeing them. Or purée the soup but hold back some of the intact elements and then re-add them after you’ve finished making your soup velvety.

This creamy soup features an additional creamy ingredient, one that’s so well-suited for the job that I overlooked its potential for a long time: an avocado. (Wasn’t it Sherlock Holmes who said that if you want to hide something, put it right out in front of everyone’s noses?) A ripe avocado is the ultimate in creamy richness. Normally, the avocado’s major drawback is that it browns when cut and left in contact with air. Since you’re completely submerging the avocado in the soup, though, you won’t have to worry about any browning going on — the other ingredients will protect the delicate green flesh even after it’s been puréed.

Chickpea Avocado Soup
Makes enough to serve 2 for a hearty meal or 4 as a side dish.

1 sweet onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
3 cups chicken broth, preferably made from pastured chicken
15 oz. canned chickpeas (I use Eden brand since their canned legumes are BPA-free and they’re canned with sea salt and a pinch of seaweed)
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1 T. dried basil
1 avocado, flesh only
Juice of 1/4 to 1/2 lemon (if you have a super-juicy lemon, you might only need 1/4 of it)

Sautée the onion in a stockpot over medium heat with a splash of extra-virgin olive oil for 4 minutes or until onion is turning translucent. Add garlic and continue to cook, stirring often, for another 2 minutes or until garlic is softened and fragrant. Pour in broth and chickpeas and simmer for 5 minutes, reducing heat to medium-low if the soup is furiously boiling rather than gently simmering. Note that if you use Eden beans, you might as well use the entire undrained can. Why waste any of that extra (non-BPA-tinged) flavor? Stir in salt and basil and remove from heat.

Purée soup with a hand-blender/immersion blender. If you don’t have one of those nifty kitchen gadgets, pour the soup into a blender and purée. Add the avocado and the lemon juice and purée for a few more seconds. Taste to see if you’d like to add any more lemon juice, basil, or salt.

Serve immediately, garnishing with sweet paprika if you like. Note that leftover soup will keep for 4 days in the refrigerator.

Enjoy!

Salad Tossed with Hazelnut Oil

Unrefined oils are a deliciously wonderful thing. They can also be difficult to find even when you know what you want. Fortunately, though, extra-virgin olive oil is in just about every grocery store aisle nowadays, and many non-chain stores and health-oriented stores — read: not Wal-Mart, Costco, Meijer or Kroger’s — also stock unrefined peanut and sesame oils. Just be sure the word “unrefined” is on the label before you buy them. You’ll know they’re the real deal when you unscrew the top and are enveloped by the scent of peanut or sesame. (Someone standing several feet away will be enveloped by unrefined peanut oil, too. Peanuts are impressively assertive.) Unrefined/extra-virgin coconut oil is another relatively easy oil to find. It’s not nearly as coconutty as peanut oil is peanutty, but unrefined coconut oil is fantastic for making fritters, popcorn, and anything else that you’d prefer not to flavor too strongly with its cooking oil.

But if you want to veer a bit off the beaten track with your unrefined oil selection, check out what La Tourangelle has to offer. (Despite their French-sounding name, the company is based in California.) You’ll probably find one or two varieties in your local grocery store — shockingly, even my local Kroger’s carries two kinds — or you can check out www.latourangelle.com to see the full selection. I’ve tried nearly all of them, and so far my favorites are the pecan, hazelnut, walnut, and pistachio oils. These nutty oils are especially fragrant and flavorful. These are also my favorite nuts in their whole-nut form, so it isn’t surprising I’m a sucker for the oil-only versions. It’s amazing how much unrefined oils capture the essence of what the ingredient was originally … unlike refined oils, which all taste like nothing. Then again, when you overheat an oil way past its smoke point and then have to deodorize and de-gunk it, you gotta figure on flavor going out the window. Nutritive value does, too.  You’re far better off choosing an unrefined oil and then using it sparingly to make the most of its flavor and health benefits.

The bottom line: cook medium- or low-heat food with extra-virgin olive oil and then toss/drizzle the dish with a more flavorful oil right before serving, or cook high-heat food with ghee, butter, or coconut oil and then toss/drizzle with a more flavorful oil before serving. Or combine the dish directly with a more flavorful and tender oil if it’s a non-heated dish.

Fresh Salad Tossed with Hazelnut Oil
Serves 2 for lunch. If you add the suggested garnishes, it can easily become a hearty meal.

Double handful of baby spinach or other tender greens
1 avocado, gently chopped
Handful cashews, chopped
1/4 sweet onion, slivered
Handful raisins
2 T. unrefined hazelnut, walnut, pecan, almond, or pistachio oil (all pair beautifully with the creamy avocado and cashews and the sweet orange and raisin)
1 T. fresh orange juice
Sea salt & freshly ground pepper

Toss all ingredients together gently. Taste and add a little more orange juice if you’d like your salad to be sweeter. This would be excellent garnished with shrimp, chicken, or hard-boiled eggs, although I also like it unadorned as a simple last-minute meal.

Enjoy!

Wild Salmon with Strawberry Salsa

It’s finally arrived, folks: wild salmon season! The sustainable wild salmon fisheries up in Alaska are running at peak capacity right now, which means not only can you get fresh wild salmon — as opposed to frozen — you’ll probably have a choice of different varieties available at your local fishmonger shop.  (Superior Fish had red sockeye, coho, and another that I can’t recall.  I picked the sockeye since the fishmonger said it had the “boldest flavor.”)

Rainbow trout and Arctic char are beauties, too, but for my money, you just can’t beat fresh wild salmon.  Farmed salmon, on the other hand, lacks the flavor and nutrition of wild since the amount and type of omega-3 fats in the wild salmon depends upon its natural diet.  (Hint: not grain!)  Besides, farmed salmon is often the result of irresponsible and environmentally damaging aquaculture methods, while the wild fisheries in Alaska are generally regarded as leaders in the sustainable seafood world.  So support your taste buds AND the environment by enjoying fresh Alaskan wild salmon when it’s in season!

Wild Salmon with Strawberry Salsa

Serves 4 if you go with 2 ears of corn. Recipe can easily be halved or doubled, whichever best suits your dining plan.

1-2 ears of corn, husked
8-10 organic strawberries, hulled (stem removed) and chopped*
1 avocado, peel and pit discarded, flesh chopped
16 oz fresh-style salsa, preferably any variety from Garden Fresh OR make your own by combining chopped tomatoes, chopped onions, chopped cilantro, lime juice, and a little chopped garlic

1 lb. fresh wild salmon
Extra-virgin olive oil

Fill a large pot halfway with water and bring to a boil. Drop in the ears of corn, reduce heat slightly, and boil the ears for 3 minutes. DO NOT OVERCOOK! Sticking to the three-minute mark will ensure crisp, sweet kernels; overstepping it will give you soggy, less-tasty kernels. Use heatproof tongs to remove the ears, set them in a dish drain or drying rack, and let cool until you can easily handle them with bare hands.  (You can speed this up by placing the ears in a pot- or bowlful of cold water for a few minutes, then letting them dry for a few minutes.) Take a sharp knife and cut the kernels into a large bowl, holding the knife at a 45-degree angle to the cob so that you’re cutting deep enough to remove the full kernels but not so deep that you cut into the cob itself. Start cutting about halfway down the cob, then flip it over and cut kernels off the other half. Discard cobs.

Stir the kernels, the strawberries, and the avocado into the salsa. The acidity of the citrus and tomatoes will prevent the avocado from browning. Set aside salsa while you’re making the salmon.

Drizzle a bit of olive oil into a pan large enough to hold the salmon and heat over medium heat for 1 minute. Add salmon skin side UP and gently swirl the salmon in the oil, coating it so that it won’t stick to the pan when you go to flip it. Cover the pan with a lid and let the salmon cook for 5 minutes. Check at 4 minutes if you’re using a smaller piece of salmon — 1/2 lb. or 3/4 lb. instead of the full pound — and see if the flesh is opaque about halfway up. When it is, carefully flip the salmon over with a large spatula or two smaller spatulas so that the skin side is resting on the pan. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and cook for another 5 minutes, again checking at 4 minutes if you’re using a smaller piece of salmon. When the flesh is completely opaque and flakes apart easily when pierced by a fork, the salmon is done. DO NOT OVERCOOK! Overcooked salmon can be dried-out and tough compared to its tender, almost-buttery counterpart. Also be aware that different types of salmon have different amounts of fat; the lower-fat varieties will cook more quickly than the higher-fat varieties will.

Run a spatula along the bottom of the salmon flesh to separate it from the skin if you want to remove the skin before serving. Serve with a generous portion of salsa. Leftover salsa will last a day or two in the refrigerator. If you plan on having leftover salsa around longer than that, only put avocado in the portion you’re going to serve immediately — without the avocado, the refrigerated strawberry salsa will be fine for a good 5 days.

Enjoy!

* Seeing as strawberries are our #1 most-sprayed crop, it’s worth buying organic strawberries.

Savory Goat Cheese & Avocado Dip

Savory dips are just about the most versatile thing you can make, because not only can a neverending variety of items be considered dippables, the dip itself can become a sauce if you thin it a little bit and then toss it with pasta, whole grains, meat, you name it.  Or you could thin it even more and call it a soup.  (To thin a thick dip or sauce, add more of the most-liquid ingredient, or add water if that most-liquid ingredient would dominate the rest if it were increased.  Too much lime juice, for example, would make guacamole too acidic, but adding more tomato juice to gazpacho wouldn’t knock the balance of flavors out of whack since tomatoes already are the predominant flavor.)

This savory dip is very savory indeed thanks to the olives and sun-dried tomatoes it contains.  You could also use black olives if you prefer that flavor, but I’m a green-olive fan.  Besides, I thought that pairing green olives with green avocado would make for an overall happily green dip.

Savory Goat Cheese & Avocado Dip
(or Green Monster Dip if you’re serving it to kids)

1 avocado
2 large spoonfuls soft goat cheese
8 green onions, green part only, minced
4 sun-dried tomatoes, minced (you’ll need a very sharp knife to easily mince these)
12 green olives, pitted and minced (or use black if you’d prefer that flavor)
Small squirt of lemon or lime juice (to help prevent the avocado from browning)
1/2 jalapeño, minced, or 2 T. canned diced green chiles (optional, although I used the canned variety and thought it added a nice, not-too-kicky kick)
Handful cilantro or fresh basil, minced (optional, but again a nice touch: go with cilantro for a Mexican twist or basil for an Italian one)

Bite-sized raw veggies or whole-grain crackers/chips for dipping

Mash the avocado and goat cheese together with the fork, then stir in the remaining dip ingredients and serve with the veggies and/or crackers and chips. This would also make a great sandwich topping, or you could add a teaspoon or two of water to thin it and then toss with with hot pasta. The dip would be a nice side for chicken or fish, too.

Enjoy!

Shrimp, Feta & Avocado Salad

Compared to fish, clams, scallops, mussels — even lobster — shrimp strikes me as the richest, smoothest morsel of the sea.  Wild shrimp are especially sweet and creamy.  The only trick is not to overcook them into tough rubberiness.  Seeing as everyone loves a speedy and delicious dinner, though, the fact that they cook so quickly makes shrimp more of an asset than a liability.  Add in a ripe, ultra-creamy avocado, tender greens, and some salty-sharp Feta, and you have a swanky nouvelle California kind of meal in fewer than ten minutes.  (And assuming that you’re serving 4 or already have one or two of the main ingredients on hand, your swanky meal will cost less than $5 a plate.)

Shrimp, Feta & Avocado Salad

Serves 4 for lunch or a light dinner.  Recipe can easily be doubled or tripled.

Several handfuls mixed lettuce OR baby spinach
2 avocadoes, chopped
Feta cheese, preferably made from sheep or goat milk and preferably not pre-crumbled (the pre-crumbled type is dry and not nearly as tasty as the brick in brine)
Lemon juice
Extra-virgin olive oil
Sea salt & freshly cracked pepper
1 to 1 1/2 lbs. raw shrimp, preferably wild (cleaning them yourself isn’t hard and is a whole lot less expensive than buying ready-to-eat shrimp: just peel away and discard the shell [leave the tail attached if you prefer that look], run a knife along the top length of the shrimp so that you can pull out the dark cord visible just beneath the skin, and rinse well with cold water)

Prepare the salad base by gently tossing the lettuce and avocado with the Feta. (I like to chop my Feta before sprinkling it on my salads, but you could also cut it into slices or wedges.) Drizzle with fresh lemon juice and oil in about a 1:1 ratio, starting with 1 T. of each and adding more to taste. Add a dash of salt and pepper and divide the portions onto plates.

To cook the shrimp, heat a pat of butter or ghee in a large skillet over medium heat for 1 minute or until butter is sizzling. (You could use a splash of extra-virgin olive oil instead, but the butter will brown the shrimp a little more nicely than the oil will.) Add shrimp and cook for 1 or 2 minutes, shaking the pan occasionally to prevent shrimp from sticking. Use tongs to flip a shrimp over to see if it’s pink underneath. If it is, flip all of them over and cook for another minute or two until shrimp are pink on both sides and are starting to curl inwards.

Immediately remove from heat and top individual salads with shrimp.

Enjoy!

Mexican Salad with Sweet Lime

Something new — at least, new to me — is going on the citrus world: sweet limes.  Citrus fruits have long been cross-it-over favorites, of course, like the tangelo.  (Although I haven’t seen those in a while, I can still remember when they were the “in” fruit.)  That deliciously juicy hybrid is a combination of tangerines and pomelo grapefruits.  And there are lots of less-common species like kumquats and ugli fruits that aren’t on our citrus radar.

Sweet limes just cropped up at my favorite produce market, so of course I had to see if they really were sweet or lime-ish.  The verdict?  Much sweeter than lime-ish — sort of like a toned-down cocktail grapefruit.  They’re so mild and sweet that you can drink the juice straight, actually.

Their sweetness makes them useful in salads, too, where you might normally use orange juice.  Mexicans typically use the more traditional sour limes in their dishes, but sometimes it’s fun to put a naturally sweeter spin on dressings.  For this salad, you could use either sweet limes or standard limes, whichever your taste buds desire.

Mexican Salad with Sweet Lime
Serves 2 for lunch, but can easily be doubled or tripled, or you can add more ingredients to make a heartier main dish.

Handful of cherry tomatoes, halved OR 2 medium Roma tomatoes, chopped
1 avocado, chopped
About 1/4 cup cilantro, chopped (or however much cilantro you like — I prefer a good amount)
About 1 T. chopped white or green onion
1 cup black beans, drained
1 cup cooked brown rice (optional)
2 T. extra-virgin olive oil
Juice of 1 sweet lime
1 tsp. chili powder

Toss all ingredients together in a large mixing bowl, adding the beans and rice to make a more filling dish. Serve immediately.

Note: You could also add chopped cooked chicken or fish, or you could use this salad as a salsa and serve it alongside a main meal. It could also be a chunky dip for corn tortillas.

Enjoy!

Soft Taco Crepes

Sometimes you might be in the mood for a crunchy taco, sometimes you might want a soft taco.  The only problem with the latter is that it’s hard to find Qualitarian soft taco shells — the majority of the store-bought ones have all kinds of chemicals in them to keep them soft and supple.  And even though I love making my own tortillas, they fall more into the “crispy”  category than into the ” soft”  one.

Enter an elegant and practical solution: French crepes.  Because these thin, easily-rolled pancakes are not dependent upon gluten to make them work, you can use whatever flour you’d like when making them…such as corn.  Or rice, or potato, or chickpea, or whatever flavor you’d like to use to accent the filling.  (Corn = Mexican, rice = Asian, chickpea = Indian, etc.  Buckwheat flour is traditionally used to make Russian blinis.  You get the idea.)  Leftover crepes can be used to make a round PB&J, or you could fill them with hummus and slivered raw veggies for a quick lunch.  Or fill the crepes with fruit and drizzle them with maple syrup for breakfast.  Once you’ve made them once or twice, you’ll love the versatility and flexibility of one of the world’s most delicious flatbreads.

Soft Taco Crepes

The crepe recipe makes about a dozen crepes; top them with as much filling as you’d like.  Just remember that if you add too much filling, you won’t be able to roll up the crepe!

Canned black beans, drained, or freshly-made dried beans (Eden beans are canned in BPA-free cans)
Corn kernels, fresh and simmered for 3 minutes or frozen and thawed
Freshly-chopped cilantro
Crepes (see “Mastering Crepes the Easy Way” for recipe)
Fresh-style salsa (Garden Fresh is my favorite)
A sharp dry-ish cheese, such as sheep’s-milk Feta, crumbled or grated
Chopped avocado

Mix equal proportions of beans and corn in a bowl. Add as much cilantro as you like (or leave it out if you’re not a cilantro fan). Lay out crepes and top them with the corn and beans. Spoon salsa over that, then sprinkle on cheese. Finish by topping with chopped avocado.

Roll up your taco (if you haven’t overstuffed it the way I always do) and enjoy!

Note: to make these into fish tacos, just include some cooked mild-tasting fish in the filling.  You could even use canned albacore.

Corn Spaghetti Tossed with Guacamole

A whimsical name for a whimsical dish: pasta tossed with guacamole.  I got the idea when I wanted to make guacamole but was out of corn chips.  What to do?  Use corn in a different form, I decided.  I did.  I also deepened the flavors of the dish by sautéeing the garlic and onion before stirring them into the smashed avocado.

This is a great way to serve extra guacamole…and people who object to the greenness of the dip may be more willing to eat noodles swathed in greenness.  (Dad!)  After all, pesto is green, and everyone loves that on pasta.  If a child is balking at the idea of a green meal, tell her you’re serving Shrek pasta for dinner.

“Monster” Pasta (Spaghetti Tossed with Guacamole)
Both gluten-free and wheat versions given

2 servings of a pasta of your choice, prepared according to package instructions (corn is best, but a mild brown rice or wheat would also work)*
1 T. extra-virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, sliced into thin rounds
1 small onion, diced
1 avocado
1 medium tomato, chopped
1 T. fresh lemon juice
Salt and pepper

While pasta is cooking, sautée olive oil, garlic, and onion over medium-low heat in a small saucepan for about 2 minutes or until garlic is fragrant and onion is translucent. Stir often to prevent garlic from browning. Remove from heat and set aside.

In a flat-bottomed bowl, mash avocado with a fork. (It works best if you can easily press down into the avocado flesh.) Stir in tomato, lemon juice, garlic, and onion.** Season to taste with salt and pepper, then toss with warm pasta. Serve immediately. A dollop of good-quality sour cream or Greek yogurt would be a nice garnish.

Enjoy!

* Use corn or brown rice to make this dish gluten-free.

** Note that this is how you make basic guacamole, whether you want to toss it with pasta or dip chips in it.  Just use raw onions and garlic rather than cooked ones and use about half (or less) the amount to account for the fact that they’ll be much stronger-tasting when they’re raw.

Shrimp & Salmon Salad

What do shrimp, salmon, avocado, and Boston lettuce have in common?  They’re all smooth — in the case of avocado, downright creamy — and full-flavored, and when you put them together, you get a very tasty, quick, well-balanced meal.  (And since the salad is served cold, it’s also a great way to use leftover cooked salmon and shrimp.)  All these elements need is a bit of sharpness to highlight their smooth nature, and for that you can turn to lemon juice, lime juice, or a soft vinegar like white balsamic or cider.  You  might also wish to add a briny/salty element — here, I’ve included artichoke hearts, but olives or a few sliced/minced dill pickles would also work.

Shrimp & Salmon Salad

On a plate, arrange rinsed-and-dried Boston lettuce (or Bibb, which is another soft, buttery lettuce), sliced avocado, chunked cooked wild salmon (you could also use canned), cooked cold shrimp, and quartered artichoke hearts.  Drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil and lime or lemon juice, then sprinkle on a few shakes of sea salt and a few grinds of freshly-cracked pepper.  It’s that easy!

Note:  if your salmon and/or shrimp is pre-seasoned — perhaps you made an Asian-themed meal the night before and used a soy glaze, or maybe you made garlicky Shrimp Scampi — then choose your salad accents accordingly.  An Asian salad would do well with sesame or peanut oil and rice wine vinegar (you could even make a more formal dressing by mixing them in a small bowl with a bit of fish sauce, curry sauce, or fermented bean paste if you have any); likewise, an Italian salad would be delicious served with balsamic vinegar and a nutty oil like walnut or pinenut.  You could also extend pesto into dressing by whisking in enough extra-virgin olive oil to make it pourable.

Enjoy!

Olive, Bean & Avocado Salad

Food is like life — it’s all about balance and simplicity.  And although any dish has the potential to hit that sublime yin-yang-ness, salads are probably the easiest and most versatile showcase for a blending of flavors.  Sweet?  Salty?  Sharp?  Smooth?  Those elements are probably already on your shelves and ready to go.

All it takes to make a good salad is a good base, a few well-considered ingredients, and a splash-and-dash dressing of oil and vinegar.  You can mix the dressing in a bowl or simply drizzle on the oil and vinegar and then toss the salad (which is what I do — it’s quicker and works just as well).  Feel free to add herbs and spices as well…and remember that there are many kinds of oils and vinegars to spark your creativity!

The base for this salad: mixed baby lettuces
Other good bases: various tender greens (baby spinach, Romaine lettuce, Boston lettuce, etc.); whole grains (brown rice, quinoa, millet, etc.)

The salty element in this salad: green Queen Sevilla olives
Other good salty elements: salted nuts, salty cheeses such as Parmesan and Romano, soy-based dressings

The sweet element in this salad: sun-dried tomatoes (softened by having poured boiling water over them and letting them sit for an hour)
Other good sweet elements: fruit (including fresh tomatoes), sweet peppers (fresh or roasted), dressings with a bit of honey

The sharp element in this salad: brined artichoke hearts
Other good sharp elements: onions, pickles, capers, pepperoncini, chiles, dressings with sharper vinegars (red wine is more piquant than balsamic or cider)

The smooth elements in this salad: butter beans and avocado
Other good smooth elements: seeds (pumpkin, sunflower, sesame), creamy cheeses such as soft goat cheese or mozzarella, dairy-based dressings with yogurt or cream

Put your chosen elements in a bowl, dress, toss, and serve.

If only balancing a checkbook were this easy!

Banana-Avocado Smoothie

In the U.S., we tend to view avocadoes as a savory vegetable, to be served alongside tacos as guacamole or to be sliced and used as a sandwich topping.  In other areas of the world, though, you’re just as likely to find avocadoes on the dessert menu:  in Tanzania, avocado ice cream is a favorite; in Brazil, you can enjoy avocado pudding.  (Being an avocado fiend, I’ve made both, and yes, they’re delicious!)

So why not blend avocado into a morning smoothie? The thought struck me as I was taking stock of my fruit basket and realizing I was down to bananas.  They’re both tropical, they’re both creamy, and to top it off, I had some leftover coconut milk from having made a curry dish the night before.  The idea was too good to pass up.  The resulting drink is too good to pass up, too — if you want an exotic, smooth way to start your morning, give it a try!

Banana-Avocado Smoothie

For one serving, blend half an avocado and half a banana with about a cup of coconut milk or regular dairy milk.  (Check out Avocadoes:  The Ultimate Condiment for more info on selecting and storing avocadoes, including leftover halves.)  Take a moment to admire the beautiful pale peridot hue before transporting yourself to paradise!

Deviled Eggs with Avocado & Paprika

Some people won’t eat them because they’re green.  Some people like to eat them because they’re green.  Some of us wouldn’t care if they were striped with orange and purple and accented by yellow polka dots — we eat avocadoes because they’re delicious.  No other vegetable, fruit, grain, nut, or even dairy source can match an avocado for smooth creaminess.  Its perfect blend of sweetness and refreshing green-ness makes it an ideal companion for any dish:  on salads, in wraps, chunked into soups, mashed into dips, even blended into puddings and ice creams.

You can also use avocado in place of mayonnaise — not only does it taste better, it’s much better for you.  Layer a sandwich with slices of avocado instead of mayo.  Make deviled eggs by smashing hard-boiled egg yolks with lemon, avocado, mustard, and perhaps a bit of dill-pickle relish.  Make a salad dressing out of mashed avocado thinned with lemon juice and buttermilk.  (Just add freshly-snipped herbs and cracked peppercorns for a “ranch” flair.)

The only tricky part about using avocadoes is knowing when they’re ripe…and even that’s not too difficult to figure out.  Next time you’re near a display of avocadoes, notice how the skins differ in color — some are medium-green, some are darkish-green, and some are purple-green.  Lightly squeeze a few of them.  The purplish ones will be very soft (if they almost burst when you pick them up, they’re too ripe) while the medium-green ones will be rock-hard.  If you want to use the avocado right away, choose one that’s purplish and soft but without bruised spots that almost give beneath your fingers.  If you don’t want to use the avocado for several days or maybe even a week, choose one that’s rock-hard and leave it out on the counter to ripen.  In either case, if your avocado seems ready to use and you don’t want to use it that day, just stick in the refrigerator — that will retard its ripening process and keep it ready-to-use for another three or four days.  You can also store cut avocadoes for a few days if you wrap the halves securely in plastic wrap.  (Store the half with the pit.)  Just shave off the browned surface before using.

Another interesting thing about avocadoes:  their name stems from ahuacatl, which means “testicle” in Nahuatl, an indigenous Aztec language still spoken in Central Mexico.  Perhaps avocadoes should have been the original Forbidden Fruit!

Avocado & Red Pepper Sandwich

Velvety, creamy, mashable (yet slice-and-diceable)…and a color that would make the Grinch envious.  Who can resist avocadoes?  Not me!  I make guacamole with them, I serve strips of avocado in wraps and atop salads, alongside fish and strewn atop chili.  You just can’t beat ripe avocadoes for the warmth and richness they bring to almost any dish.

This variation began when I decided I wanted to make an open-faced pita sandwich and top it with avocado.  It didn’t take long for me to decide that what I really wanted was the avocado, so why not make it the star rather than a supporting actor?  To make this luscious-yet-light “sandwich,” I mashed half an avocado with half of a minced red pepper, a minced green onion, a squirt of lemon juice, and a pinch of sea salt.  The smoothness of the avocado was a perfect foil for the crunch of the red pepper.  If you like your lunch spicy, just add a bit of cayenne or crushed red pepper flakes.

Enjoy!

Shrimp & Avocado Salad

Cabin fever strikes again!  This time, I’ve paired shrimp with avocado and mango to escape the winter blues.  This salad is refreshing for the tongue and for the eyes…and with the protein and calcium from the shrimp, the antioxidants from the mangoes, the fiber and good fat from the avocadoes, and the omega-3s from the mâche (the type of baby greens I chose), it gets top marks for nutrition as well.

For the dressing:
Mix 1/4 cup of olive oil with 1 T. balsamic vinegar and 1 T. lemon juice. Add about 2 T. minced onions and stir. Sprinkle in a bit of salt and pepper, then stir again and set aside for 30 minutes. Note: this amount serves two people. Alter the recipe to account for the number of guests at your table. And don’t worry about using it all–if you make too much, you can store it in the refrigerator for several days.

For the salad:
Pre-cooked and peeled shrimp (figure on 6-8 shrimp per person)
1 avocado, sliced (cut in half, remove pit, peel away skin, and slice into long strips)
1 mango, cut into small chunks
Mâche

When the dressing is ready, rinse shrimp well and let drain while you prepare the mango and avocado. Scatter mâche onto plate(s), then add avocado strips in a wheel pattern. Place shrimp between “spokes” and top with mango chunks.  Spoon dressing over salad, taking care to distribute the onion evenly.

Enjoy!