When I was younger, I guess, way back in fifth grade, I never liked avocados and tomatoes.  I tried to avoid them if possible.  Today, I can get enough of either, especially avocado.  Can’t get enough, I tell you.

The other day, I had some walnuts and avocado and decided to make this salad.  Looking at the overabundance of avocado in my plate, you can see that I now love avocado.  I loved the warm mustard vinaigrette over the salad.  The entire salad recipe was easy to put together and delicious!  Try it!  Oh, the recipe calls for sun dried tomatoes and arugula.    I didn’t have those two ingredients and used fresh tomatoes and leafy green salad.  Still tasted terrific.  

Paz

Walnut and avocado salad with warm mustard vinaigrette

Sweet Paul

serves 4

3 avocados, peeled and sliced

small bunch of arugula, washed

1/2 cup toasted walnuts

1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes, sliced

1/2 cup olive oil

3 tablespoons grainy mustard

1 tablespoon maple syrup

salt

pepper

Place avocado slices, arugula, walnuts and sun dried tomatoes on plates.

In a small saucepan heat up oil, mustard and maple syrup.

Whisk well so you get a thick vinaigrette.

Season with salt and pepper.

Pour the warm dressing over the salad and serve.

Garbanzo beans (chickpeas)!  Tomatoes! Cilantro!  Avocado!  Need I say more?   I had to make this salad when I saw it.  This is another one of Kalyn’s fabulous recipes.   Oh, man!  I feel like I’m in heaven when I eat this salad.  

Paz

Garbanzo, Tomato, and Cilantro Salad with Lime and Chile Dressing (with or without avocado)

Kalyn’s Kitchen

(4 servings, recipe created by Kalyn with inspiration from a blog that no longer exists)

Ingredients:

1 can garbanzo beans (chickpeas), rinsed well and drained

4-5 tomatoes or 1 cup cherry or grape tomatoes, diced in 1/2 inch pieces

1/2 cup green onion, sliced

1 cup (1 large bunch) cilantro, washed, dried, and chopped coarsely with chef’s knife or food processor

1 avocado, diced (optional, but good)

Dressing Ingredients:

2 T fresh lime juice (plus 2 tsp. more for avocado, if using)

2 T extra-virgin olive oil

1/4 tsp. ground Chipotle chile powder (I used Penzeys, you could substitute hot sauce if you don’t have ground Chipotle)

1/2 tsp. chile powder (mild)

1/2 tsp. ground cumin

1/2 tsp. onion powder

zest from one lime

salt, fresh ground pepper to taste

Instructions:

Drain beans into colander and rinse until no foam remains. Let drain well. Mix together the lime juice, olive oil, ground Chipotle powder (or hot sauce), chile powder, ground cumin, onion powder, and lime zest to make the dressing, then put beans and dressing into a plastic container with a snap-on lid and shake a few times to combine. (Use a bowl that’s big enough to hold all the salad ingredients.) Let beans marinate in dressing one hour or longer.

If using avocado, peel and dice the avocado and toss it with 2 teaspoons of lime juice. Dice tomatoes, place in colander with a small amount of salt and let tomatoes drain 10 minutes while you dice onions and chop cilantro. (You can skip that step if using cherry tomatoes or if your tomatoes aren’t that juicy.)  Thinly slice the green onions and wash, dry, and chop the cilantro.

Combine marinated beans with dressing, tomatoes, green onion, and cilantro and stir gently until well combined, then gently stir in the avocado (if using.) Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve.

I love fish, especially salmon.  Funny thing:  I pronounce salmon, SAL-MON.  I notice Americans pronounce it SA-MON.   They leave the "L" out.  So, when I say SAL-MON, they look at me funny.  LOL!  I’m not sure where or how I learned to prounonce it that way but that’s the way I do.   Anyway, whichever way it’s pronounced, I love this fish and when I saw the recipe for Grilled Salmon with Avocado Salsa (and a photo of the meal — please, please check out Laylita’s enticing photo.), I couldn’t resist making it.  Actually, the Avocado Salsa is what got me.  I’d never before heard of anything like that to eat with salmon. 

The next day after work, I bought the ingredients and set out to prepare it for dinner.  Regular readers know by now that I love simple and easy-to-make meals.  This is definitely one.  Oh, and another enticing factor about this recipe is that it has cilantro.  Hello!?  Cilantro!  Again, regular readers know that cilantro is my all-time favorite fresh herb.  Yes! 

Laylita’s recipe calls for the cilantro to be finely chopped.  Umm…  I didn’t really do that and I clearly added more than the 2 Tbs of cilantro.  Next time, I’ll try to follow the recipe better. 

The salsa was very easy to put together.  No problem.

I got out my grill pan and prepared the salmon.  My dogs LOVE fish and started getting excited about the aroma wafting from the kitchen. 

Layla suggests the side dish of Ecuadorian rice and or Patacones (thick fried green plantains) to go with the Grilled Salmon with Avocado Salsa.  A third thing regular readers know about me, by now, is that I HEART plantain.   I didn’t have any plantain at home, so I ate my salmon and avocado salsa with rice.  That was good enough.  It was mouthwatering delicious.  I loved my meal.  I loved the Avocado salsa, which was new and different to me.  It sort of had a tangy taste, which enhanced the grilled salmon that had been marinated in salt, coriander, cumin, paprika, onions and black pepper.  Let me tell you, it tasted so good.  I normally only use salt and black pepper when preparing my salmon, so these spices were an added treat to use on the salmon.

The next day, I had some leftover salmon and salsa, so I had it again for dinner.  This time I’d bought some yellow (ripe) plantain (kelewele — see photo here), which I fried and ate with the fish.  Oh, how I enjoyed my dinner even more.  I can’t wait to make this dish again.  Thank you, Laylita!

In the meantime, I’m scheduled to have surgery this week –Tuesday.  The recovery time is a bit long, so I won’t be able to post any food posts for a while.  Some awesome food bloggers have agreed to guest blog for me while I’m recuperating.  I’m really excited to see what they have planned for us.  I thank my guest bloggers in advance for their kindness.  You won’t see me on your blogs for a while but I plan on stopping by as soon as I can.

So see you soon on the blogs and don’t forget to come back here next Tuesday to find out about our first guest blogger.

Best,

Paz

GRILLED SALMON WITH AVOCADO SALSA

Laylita’s Recipes

Ingredients (for 4 people):

2lbs salmon, cut into 4 pieces

1 tbs olive oil

1 tsp salt

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp paprika powder

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp black pepper

Avocado Salsa

1 avocado, peeled, seeded and sliced

1 small red onion, sliced

3 mild hot peppers, seeded and deveined, diced or sliced

Juice from 2 limes

3 tbs olive oil

2 tbs finely chopped cilantro

Salt to taste

Suggested sides — Rice (rice Ecuadorian style)and patacones (thick fried green plantains)

Preparation:

1.  Mix the salt, coriander, cumin, paprika, onion and black pepper together, rub the salmon fillets with olive oil and this seasoning mix, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

2.  Pre-heat the grill.

3.  Combine the avocado, onion, hot peppers, cilantro, lime juice, olive oil and salt in a bowl and mix well, chill until ready to use.

4.  Grill the salmon to desired donesness.

5.  Serve the salmon topped with the avocado salsa, and with rice and patacones or thick green plantain chips on the side.