I have made evident in the past my love of the avocado; so it should come as no surprise that the other day while I was perusing my supermarket for something interesting I was drawn to a bottle of avocado oil.
Hmmm oil of an avocado...I knew it was "fatty" fruit (albeit the "good" kind of fat), but it honestly never occurred to me that there was such a thing as avocado oil; into the cart it went and off I went to find something to use it with.
During the "non-local-tomato-months" I am generally a purchaser only of those mini plastic containers of grape or cherry tomatoes since I often find the supermarket tomatoes to be gritty and flavorless. Well here we are June in Connecticut and obviously no one is harvesting tomatoes at any of the farms around here, but for whatever reason the Heirloom tomato selection at our local Whole Foods was looking rather seductive and quite honestly I could not resist a shapely and bright, yellow tomato. It was settled I would use my avocado oil for a salad using the yellow tomato, herb salad mix, and fresh mozzarella cheese.
This past weekend my H and I enjoyed a few glasses of a tasty Argentinian Malbec, but (shockingly) did not finish the bottle. Not being one to let tasty wine go to waste I decided to make a reduction to add to my salad. I had about 2/3 of a cup left and reduced it down to a tangy little tablespoon and swirled in a touch of honey-it was a perfect accent.
The avocado oil gave a lovely essence of avocado flavor to the salad. I am certain that a diced avocado added to the salad would be over the top delicious so in the future that is the only change I will make. But for today I'm cutting a few calories at lunch so that I can enjoy the tasty Carvel Ice Cream Cake I bought for my DH for his birthday today!
Heirloom Tomato and Mozzarella Salad with Avocado Oil and a Honeyed Malbec Reduction
2/3 cup Malbec
1/4 teaspoon wildflower honey
8 cups mixed salad greens
1 small shallot, very thinly sliced
3 large yellow Heirloom tomato, each cut into 6 slices
4 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese cut into 8 slices
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
8 teaspoons Avocado oil
2 tablespoons finely sliced fresh basil
In small skillet over medium high heat reduce the Malbec to 1 tablespoon; stir in the honey, pour into a small bowl and set aside to cool.
Divide the greens between 4 serving plates. Scatter the shallots over the greens. Alternate the tomato and the cheese and fan over the greens on each plate. Season each salad with the salt and pepper.
Drizzle each salad with a teaspoon of the Malbec reduction and two teaspoons of the oil. Garnish each with the fresh basil.
Yield: 4 salads
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7 comments:
What a gorgeous salad and your dressing sounds fabulous. Have to be honest here---I knew avocado oil was used in cosmetics but had no idea it was available for cooking. I'm going to have to pay more attention as a shop. Though I could send you to the store more often :-).
Nice recipe Veronica! I LOVE heirloom tomatoes in fact, some heirloom plants are blooming at my house right now. I can't wait for the tomatoes.
Hey in CT! I have been tempted for months to buy some avocado oil yet have resisted. What other applications do you think would be great? Can we plan at meet up-seriously? we could then even post about it-maybe even explore a supermarket together. savorthethyme@cox.net....any chance you are going to Blogher in July?
Jennifer..I would love to meet up! I'm going to experiment with the Avocado oil this weekend and see what else I can use it for.
Karen...you are so lucky to be able to grow your own tomatoes! My house is completely shaded about all I can grow are hostas!
Mary...I think I'm in the supermarket just about every day-at least it feels like it!
Neat, I love seeing new ingredients. Your salad looks amazing.
I hope your DH had a very happy birthday. Probably did with ice cream cake. Can't go wrong there.
Ramona
Ooohh this looks wonderful! I can't wait to try it :)
Hey stranger. I was just reviewing my list of things to make that I picked up from fabulous bloggers and I came across one of yours so I wanted to say hi. This tomato mozzarella salad looks to die for. LOVE it!!!!
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