Avocado Salad

If you hadn't noticed, I've been posting a lot of recipes with avocados in them. That's because this is the perfect season for Hass avocados. Hass avocados are the west coast avocado and in my opinion (and many others), tastes so much better than it's Floridian cousin. Usually, when these avocados are ripe they have a dark green or almost black skin and they are firm but have some give to them when you squeeze them GENTLY (is the key word!). If you can't find any ripe ones off the shelf at your grocer put a couple hard ones in a brown paper bag on your counter for a couple of days.

I've been hanging on to this recipe for a long time. Back in San Diego there was a food section that came out in the news paper every Wednesday. That is where I found this beauty. It's good the second day. The lime juice helps preserve the colors but the avocado gets a little messy and there are a little more juices flowing! To me this is everything that envelopes Southern California and it's adoption of Latin American cuisine. It's a cross between an Israeli Cucumber & Tomatoe Salad, guacamole, and salsa. It's loaded with veggies and healthy fat. All by itself it makes a colorful presentation. A great accompanyment to any BBQ. It also does not contain any jalepenos so, it's perfect for the sensitive pallet! This recipe was contributed to the San Diego Union Tribune by Douglas Rodriguez from his book "Nuevo Latino: Recipes That Celebrate the New Latin-American Cuisine".

Instead of buying a "mild onion" as the recipe states, I just used all of the green onions that I bought in the bunch.

1/4 cup finely chopped green onions
1 large red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded and finely diced
1/3 cup finely minced sweet onion
1/4 cup chopped cilantro leaves
1 small tomatoe, seeded and chopped
1 cucumber, peeled
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice (about 2 limes)
2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
3 ripe but firm Hass avocados

Combine the green onions, red pepper, sweet onion, cilantro and tomato in a large bowl.

Cut the cucumber in half lenthwise and scoop out the seeds with a spoon. Cut crosswise into thin slices and add to the vegetables.

Stir in the lime juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. Peel the avocados and cut into chunks (omitting the pit). Carefully fold into the salad.

Enjoy!