Avocado
236 recipes found
Avocado Salad With Herbs and Capers
This salad is both dead simple to make and highly luscious. It gets a velvety richness from the avocados. The salad is enlivened by a splash of red wine vinegar in the dressing and a handful of briny capers sprinkled on top. The herbs here are used in two ways, both chopped into a garlicky salsa verde-like dressing, and strewn in whole leaves across the plate. Choose your avocados carefully for this; look for firm but not rock-hard fruit, without any mushy spots. If you’d like to substitute another variety of avocado for the Haas you can, but the salad may not have the same texture. Then serve it either as a side dish or an appetizer with a meal of roasted or grilled meats, chicken or fish. Or make it the foundation of a light lunch, with some crusty bread and tangy cheese on the side.
Big Salad With Grains
There's no true recipe for a big salad, but for this robust green meal, you will want to keep a few rules in mind. Skip the soft lettuces, which tend to get squashed in a big salad, and start with sturdier greens, like kale or escarole. Add fruits and vegetables, a protein, like a hard-boiled egg, and a starch or two. You want a total of six to eight ingredients, before toppings. Too few, and it could get boring; too many, and the bowl gets crowded and confusing. Finish it off with a substantial dressing, like avocado, yogurt or tahini, and add a couple of toppings, like chives or chopped nuts. Serve with a side of whole-grain bread for a filling and healthy meal.
Breakfast Salad
From the same trend that brought us avocado toast, the breakfasts served in Australian cafes often include bright vegetables arranged in eye-catching ways. Salad is definitely not part of the traditional American breakfast menu, but on a sunny morning the combination of chilled, crunchy greens; protein-rich cheese and eggs; and an eye-opening dressing is hugely appealing. This one was created at Carthage Must Be Destroyed, an airy (and slightly eccentric) Australian-style cafe hidden behind an unmarked entrance in Brooklyn. The chef and owner Amanda Bechara likes to leave the lettuce leaves whole to make it easier to eat with your fingers. (You can prepare the vegetables the day before, and skip marinating the feta if you must.) This would also make a lovely lunch.
Linguine With Lobster and Avocado
The summer season was beginning, whetting the appetite for a copious seafood salad or a tangy ceviche. But instead, I tore a page from ceviche’s playbook and assembled a pasta dish with the avocado, tomato, jalapeño, scallion, cilantro and citrus juice, along with lobster, to mingle with pasta. The result was brightly fresh-tasting, a warm-weather charmer with a touch of spice. Even during the brief cooking, some of the avocado will melt into the mixture, suavely coating the strands of linguine. But be sure that some of the avocado is still intact. The dish is satisfying as the main event yet light enough to serve as a first course followed by chicken or sausages hot off the grill.
Marinated Shaved Fennel with Avocado and Minneola Tangelos
This recipe, from the chef Norman Van Aken, came to The Times in 2001 as part of a story about the raw food movement, in which every element of every dish is raw, organic and vegan -- no meat, fish, eggs or dairy products.
"Gnocchi" of Hass Avocado with Apples and Shaved Walnuts
This recipe is from the French Laundry, the chef Thomas Keller's restaurant in Yountville, Calif. It was published as part of a 2001 story about the raw food movement, in which every element of every dish is raw, organic and vegan.
Mango-Avocado Salad With Lime Vinaigrette
Inspired by Vietnamese green papaya salad, this salad stars ripe, juicy mangoes and dresses them in the classic punchy lime-fish sauce dressing. Tender torn greens, crunchy sweet snap peas and creamy avocado round out this dish with both crispy and creamy bites. The cooling salad is the perfect side to accompany grilled or roasted fish, chicken, or steak. If mangoes are unavailable, tomatoes or sweet stone fruit like peaches are tasty options.
Green Pea Guacamole
Adding fresh English peas to what is an otherwise fairly traditional guacamole is one of those radical moves that is also completely obvious after you taste it. The peas add intense sweetness and a chunky texture to the dip, making it more substantial on the chip. They also intensify the color of the green avocado — and help the guacamole stay that way. Pea guacamole keeps its bright hue in the fridge for a few days without turning brown around the edges. A good dose of lime juice helps this cause. This dish, a collaboration between ABC Cocina’s chef-owner, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, and his chef de cuisine, Ian Coogan, is the best kind of greenmarket tweak upon a classic.
Melon and Avocado Salad With Fennel and Chile
This sweet-savory, crunchy-creamy dish nods to California summers, when a drive to the market can often end with avocados and melons buckled in the back seat. The recipe is simple, and instantly impressive: It involves little more than scooping out the fresh fruit and topping it with a spicy-sweet pinch of sugar and a drizzle of dressing. Rubbing toasted fennel seeds, red-pepper flakes and lemon zest into sugar and salt helps their floral kick travel far. The salad’s balance depends on your melon and avocado, so rely on taste more than measurements here. Adjust the ingredients as needed, until the salad is rich, punchy and bright, bite after bite.
Roasted Butternut Squash Salad With Green Goddess Dressing
This colorful salad of sweet, soft roasted squash and crisp, bitter greens finished with a creamy, tangy green goddess dressing is an elegant mix of contrasting flavors and textures. The squash is good both warm and at room temperature, so feel free to roast it ahead of time. Some bitterness is nice against the sweet winter squash, but if you want to mellow radicchio’s bite a bit, you can soak the pieces in ice water for 10 to 30 minutes, then drain and dry before adding to the salad. Just taste before you soak; you’ll want a little bit of its bitterness. The dressing will keep for at least three days in the fridge. Serve it over other salads, or as a dip for cut-up vegetables and chips.
White Bean and Avocado Salad With Garlic Oil
Buttery avocado and creamy cannellini beans are a natural combination in this easy salad, and a quick garlic oil provides punch. The ingredient list is fairly simple, but here are a couple of tips that take it from good to great: First, make sure to remove the sliced garlic from the oil just as it starts to turn golden, so it doesn’t burn. Second, when working with ripe avocados, bypass the standard way of scooping the flesh out of the skin. Instead, achieve immaculate edges by quartering the avocado lengthwise, then gently peeling back the skin to remove the flesh.
Bacon-Wrapped Grilled Chicken Salad With Avocado and Lime
Wrap your chicken with bacon, grill it and drizzle it with this nearly green goddess, almost-guacamole dressing and you might even convert burger eaters into salad fiends. Covering the butterflied breasts in bacon helps baste the lean chicken and accelerates char as fat melts onto the coals. Flare-ups are inevitable, but don’t be alarmed: They will ensure rich color on the bacon while protecting the breast from overcooking. When assembling the salad, avoid weighing down the leaves with hot and heavy toppings: Dollop plenty of the dressing on the plate first, and layer most of the chicken and fudgy eggs below the lightly dressed leaves. There should be a little leftover dressing to satisfy the people that will want to dip each bite of chicken into the herby, lime-laced avocado.
Chicken Soup With Lime and Avocado
When I lived in France, in the ‘80s and early ‘90s, I hardly ever ate avocados. Those sold in the markets were smooth, thin-skinned varieties grown mostly in Israel. They were watery, not as creamy or nutty-tasting as Haas avocados, the dark, pebbly-skinned variety that we get in California. “Poor man’s butter,” they used to call avocados when my father was a child. (Now they would more aptly be described as “rich man’s butter.”) Simple Mexican soups like this one often include avocado, which is diced or sliced and added to the soup when it’s ladled into bowls.
Avocado, Grapefruit And Grilled Shrimp Salad
Avocado Soup With Salsa
Roasted Tomatillo-Poblano-Avocado Salsa
One of my favorite new cookbooks of this season is “A Mouthful of Stars” (Andrews McMeel), by Kim Sunée. The book is a memoir, travelogue and cookbook all rolled into one, written by an author who earlier published another compelling memoir with recipes, “Trail of Crumbs.” Kim is a poetic world traveler who loves many cuisines. She is a big fan of taco trucks and loves salsa, the spicier the better. This salsa is based on her recipe for roasted tomatillo-poblano salsa. I love its balance of char, heat, acid and creamy. I’m a moderate when it comes to heat, but you can make this hotter by adding more chiles.
Tostadas With Beans, Cabbage and Avocado
Beans are traditionally fried in lard, but I use a small amount of grapeseed or sunflower oil instead, and rely on the broth from the beans for flavor. This is a great buffet dish for a Mexican dinner party. I prefer to toast the tortillas using the microwave method, but you can also deep-fry them.
Guacamole Tostadas
Arepas de Choclo With Avocado Salad
Arepas, corn cakes that are a cornerstone of Colombian and Venezuelan cuisines, come in many guises, depending on the region, the season and the available ingredients. This slightly sweet, cheese-filled version, called arepas de choclo, is adapted from “Colombiana” (HarperCollins, 2021), a cookbook by the Colombian food stylist Mariana Velásquez. The dough, which uses a combination of fresh corn kernels and yellow masarepa (precooked cornmeal), fries up into rich, moist, golden cakes that are like a more delicate version of the mozzarella-stuffed arepas found at street fairs. Ms. Velásquez pairs these with a lemony tomato and avocado salad to offer a soft and juicy contrast to the crisp-edged cakes. Perfect for a summery brunch, these also make an excellent light lunch or dinner. If you can’t find masarepa (P.A.N. is one brand available in large supermarkets), Ms. Velásquez recommends substituting instant polenta. But don’t use masa harina, which is a different product altogether. To get vegetarian recipes like this one delivered to your inbox, sign up for The Veggie newsletter.
Fried Guacamole
The fried guacamole that Angelo Sosa serves at Abajo, his tequila bar, reminded me of the fried ice cream served at some Chinese restaurants. It’s creamy, crunchy and cool on the inside. It’s easier than you might think and it makes for a nice tidbit to enjoy with a drink, or as a first course with a salad. You can prepare the guacamole and freeze it early in the day, leaving only the frying for the last minute. The fritters can also be kept warm in a 150 degree oven for at least 30 minutes.
Light Guacamole
Poblano Guacamole
Avocado Salsa
Fresh tomatillos bring tanginess to this silky avocado salsa, and that acidity keeps the blend green even after days in the fridge. For more heat, double the chiles and keep all their seeds. If you don’t have a food processor, you can make this in a blender, but you may need to add a splash of water to purée the ingredients at the start.
Suvir Saran’s Guacamole With Toasted Cumin
The chef Suvir Saran says that “avocados make people happy,” and he’s right. He adds toasted cumin seeds, which he refers to as “Indian bacon bits,” to his chunky guacamole. This guacamole has all the flavors of a Mexican guacamole – illustrating yet again how Indian, Middle Eastern, Mediterranean and Mexican cuisines overlap. In fact, the ingredients here are identical to those that I have always used in my guacamole; but this recipe has the added delight of texture, as the ingredients aren’t mashed up. This is best served sooner than later as the avocado color will fade, but it has a few hours of holding power.