---

Avocado Recipe with Limey Dressing and Grape Tomatoes

---

Large chunks of avocados spiked with a zesty lime vinaigrette, smiles are guaranteed.  This dish is a great side or main player for a veggie based lunch.  The good fats in the avocados will keep both your brain and stomach happy all afternoon.  No h-Anger excuses!

(h-Anger defined: the annoyed and dangerous mindset that causes you to turn into a ravenous beast until you get junk food or another meal.  No, coffee does not fix this condition.  See additional details on the Urban Dictionary.)

I  traveled and worked in downtown Los Angeles for many weeks last year.  Of all the meals I ate throughout the city, my favorites primarily all came from this quick serve modern cafeteria restaurant on the basement level of the office building.

Recipe Inspiration – The Lemonade Cookbook

This mecca of lunch greatness, called Lemonade, seems to exist only in California and the Middle East (go figure…) at this point.  This dish falls into their ‘marketplace portions’ category, consisting of relatively healthy, mostly veggie based, and super flavorful dishes.  I was so excited to find such a truly filling and healthy option for lunch on the road that I ate there nearly everyday.  Oh yeah, and on travel days I would eat it twice… oops.  If you are flying Delta through LAX, you can find it right there in the terminal.

Since I am such an avid fan, of course I had to buy the cookbook.  So now that my days traveling to L.A. are over, I am working through the recipes and plan to share a few more of my favorites in future posts.  Got a few bucks burning a hole in your pocket? Pick up the The Lemonade Cookbook on Amazon.

---

Avocado Recipe with Limey Dressing and Grape Tomatoes

---

Ingredients

Limey Vinaigrette

• 1/4 cup juice of 2-3 limes
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon honey or agave nectar
• 1 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
• 2/3 cup high quality canola or other vegetable oil
• ¼ cup finely chopped cilantro leaves

Salad

• 4 firm medium green avocados
• 1 pint grape tomatoes cut in half
• 1/3 cup Limey Vinaigrette
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Prepare vinaigrette ingredients.  Add lime juice, mustard, honey or agave nectar, salt and pepper to blender.

---

2. Blend on medium for 5-10 seconds to combine. With blender on low-speed, remove lid and slowly add oil.  Blend until the dressing has become emulsified and all ingredients fully integrated.

3. Pour into a bowl and stir in cilantro.  Dressing is complete!  This will make more than is needed for this dish, but the extra can be used as a vinaigrette on your favorite salad.  I recently tried it on the massaged kale salad, also “vine-great!” (yeah I just did that…)

---

4. Prepare the avocados by first cutting in half.  Cut into the fruit until you hit the seed and run the knife in a circle to create two vertical halves.  Twist the pieces to separate.   The seed should stay in one side or the other.  If you are confident with your chef’s knife, use the bottom edge of the blade to gently whack the seed.  Then give it a twist and the seed should pop out.  Use caution!

---

5. Turn the avocado cut side down on the cutting board and gently score the hard outer skin from bottom to top.  Use your thumb and fore finger to grab the wedge-shaped piece of skin and peel it back.  If your avocados are still firm, this should be clean and easy.  If you forgot about your avocados and they got a little soft, it might be a bit messy.  Repeat until all avocados are peeled.

---

6. Chop the avocados into medium-large chunks, about ¾ to 1 inch pieces.  Gently add to a large salad bowl.

---

7. Cut grape tomatoes in half (vertically) and add to salad bowl with avocados.  Wait to stir!  The avocados are fragile creatures and like to melt away with too much handling.

---

8.  Add Limey Vinaigrette and stir gently.  Taste and adjust salt and pepper.

Let’s Eat!