Avocado Chopped Salad Two Ways: with Grilled Shrimp or Potato Gallette – And Grillin’ Season Continues!

June 15, 2011 in Healthy Fare, Side Dishes, Vegetarian Entrees

Potato Galette Avocado Salad Square

Potato Gallette Avocado Chopped Salad

I grew up in heat. Lots of heat. Giant blow-dryer heat. Cook-an-egg-on-the-sidewalk heat. Skin-sticks-to-the-chair heat.

They say in Tucson, “it’s a dry heat,” so it feels cooler. I disagree. If it’s 115 out, it’s hot, hot, HOT.

We kids used to do odd things to keep cool in the summers. We ran through the sprinklers. We laid in the shady carport so our bare stomachs could be against the cool smooth cement playing Go Fish.  We drank lemonade all day long. We rode around town at night with all the car windows rolled down. Sometimes we ate banana splits for dinner. And we ate tons and tons of cold salads.

One of my favorites is the simplest chopped salad you can make: cool, creamy avocados paired with ripe tomatoes and tart grassy green onions. All tossed with a light Cilantro Lime Vinaigrette. This is a salad that just screams “SUMMER” in your mouth, and on your plate.

Grilled Shrimp Avocado Square

Avocado Chopped Salad topped with Smoked Paprika Grilled Shrimp 

 

It’s also a healthy take on potato salad for the June Daring Cooks challenge and the potato version makes for a perfect Meatless Monday treat.

So, let’s summarize: easy, cool, refreshing, healthy. Summer conquered!

This post was just made a part of a link party for California Avocados! Check it out:  Join Dine & Dish and Cookin’ Canuck for the California Avocado 4th of July Blast, sponsored by the California Avocado Commission.

AVOCADO CHOPPED SALAD
with Cilantro Lime Vinaigrette

1/4 cup lime juice
1 teaspoon lime zest
2 teaspoons spicy brown mustard
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper sauce
1/2 teaspoon soy sauce
Salt and Pepper to taste

Whisk all ingredients together and set aside for flavors to blend.

1/4 cup diced cilantro
2 large ripe Haas avocados
1 medium ripe tomato
2 green onions, thinly sliced

Chop avocados and tomato into small pieces.

Strain vinaigrette to remove lime zest. Stir in cilantro.

Toss all vegetables and vinaigrette together.

FOR POTATO GALLETTE:

Slice a Russet potato into paper thin slices. Using a 2 1/2 inch diameter cookie cutter, cut potato slices into circles. Arrange 6 or 7 slices on a piece of parchment paper, sprinkle with salt and pepper  and then brush with melted butter. Let stand for 5 minutes. This is important – to let potato slices bond together. Heat a heavy skillet to medium heat. Place potato rounds into skillet by turning the piece of parchment paper upside down quickly over skillet. Brush top of potato round with melted butter. Place a small pan on top of potato rounds to keep flat while cooking.(If you have a bacon press or a chef’s press, use that.)  Cook on one side until you see edges of potato circles are getting brown. Turn over carefully, so as not to disturb circles. Cook with pan on top until other side is browned. Blot with paper towels and let cool completely.

When using your gallettes in this salad, I like to pick them up and spoon some avocado mixture on top and then eat them like a finger food.

FOR GRILLED SHRIMP:

Brush large uncooked shrimp with vegetable oil and smoked paprika. Grill until cooked through, turning once.

Check out a sampling of my Daring Cooks Friends and their potato salads:

Potato Mango Ginger Salad, Parsley Sage Desserts and Line Drives
Roasted Fingerling Potato Salad, Family Spice
So Many Versions, Monkey Shines
Four versions, Good Cooks
Smoky Peppadew Salad, Onions and Chocolate
Mediterranean Potato Salad, Bake me Away
And, Audax from Down Under trumped us all with SEVEN potato Salads! Yowza!

– posted by Donna

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