Ripe avocados are delicious and best of all they provide our bodies with a healthy source of monounsaturated fats, fat soluble vitamins, fibre and an abundance of vitamins and minerals essential to good health. They are a fantastic ingredient for a salad, which is why they work so well in this Avocado and Smoked Salmon Salad recipe by one of our Mouths of Mums members.

Below is a delicious Avocado and Smoked Salmon Salad with a tasty caper dressing. It’s very quick and easy to put together, making this Avocado and Smoked Salmon Salad a perfect dinner idea after a long day at work. Serve with crusty bread to mop up any leftover dressing.

Avocado and Smoked Salmon Salad with Caper Dressing

Serves: 2

Ingredients:

Caper Dressing:

• 2 tbspn extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tbspn fresh lemon juice
• 2 tbspn capers, roughly chopped
• freshly cracked black peppercorns

Salad:

• 50g rocket leaves
• 200g green beans, blanched
• 100g smoked salmon slices
• 1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced
• 1 small, ripe avocado
• crusty bread, for serving

Method:

1. Place olive oil, lemon juice and capers into a screw-top jar. Season with pepper and shake to combine.

2. Divide rocket leaves, beans, salmon and red onion onto serving plates.

3. Cut avocado in half length ways, remove and discard stone and skin. Cut avocado into slices and add to salad.

4. Drizzle dressing over salad, season with extra cracked pepper and serve immediately.

TIPS:

1. Avocados (like pears) do not ripen on trees. Instead ripening actually occurs when avocados are harvested. To ripen an avocado (or pear), place in a brown paper bag and store at room temperature until softened. To speed up the ripening process, place avocado near other ripening fruit.

Many ripening fruit like bananas and apples naturally give off ethylene gas and this helps speed the ripening process. To slow down the ripening process, keep your avos in the fridge.

2. Drizzle all cut surfaces of an avocado with lemon or lime juice to prevent the avocado from discolouring (although these brown bits are still perfectly fine to eat!).