Griddled avocado with balsamic-roasted tomatoes, chilli, coriander & mint salad.
I’ve never been one for keeping up with trends so I was very slow on the uptake when everyone started going crazy for avocado toast.
But, unlike most trends, I think there’s a very sound reason behind this one: the flavour & texture combination is perfect. Mashed with a little lemon & chilli, I like it on homemade sourdough, topped with roasted cherry tomatoes and their cooking juices.
But, like many people these days (hmmm… perhaps I AM a sucker for a trend after all….?) I’m much more conscious of the amount of carbs I eat so, although I might fancy that avocado-tomato flavour I sometimes want something a bit lighter than a bread-based lunch.
So, how about ditching the toast and instead getting that charred flavour from griddling the avocado?
Halve and carefully de-stone your avocado then brush the cut sides with lime juice and olive oil. Place on a pre-heated hot griddle pan for about 90 seconds, turning them if you want a criss-cross pattern of lines – don’t turn too early though or you might find they’ve got stuck. They’re now ready to form the base of your salad.
While you can top the griddled avocados with fresh tomatoes, I like to continue the charred/browned theme by using roasted cherry tomatoes. I halve the tomatoes, season with salt and pepper then drizzle with a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I roast these at a fairly high heat for about 12 minutes.
To serve, I like to sit the avocados on a bed of salad leaves. For more refined eating, you can at this point carefully remove the avocado halves from their ‘shells’ before placing them on the salad, but if I’m eating a solitary lunch then I don’t usually bother, just put them skin and all on the salad (when eating just arm yourself with a spoon as well as knife and fork and make a jolly old mess).
Scatter the roasted tomatoes in, over, around the avocados and amongst the salad leaves. I also like to generously throw over some fresh herbs – coriander and mint are my favourites – plus some finely chopped red chilli.
If you have any of the lime & olive oil left over from when you brushed the avocado halves, mix this in with the tomato cooking juices then dribble the whole lot over the plate. Add a little more salt and freshly ground black pepper if you think it needs it.
Then tuck right in.