Lettuce and spinach with citrus and avocado

This recipe has a unique combination of bitter-tart grapefruit and creamy avocado, both among my favourite foods, so of course I had to try this salad. The flavours play alongside each other beautifully, and the lettuce adds a crunchy texture. This super healthy salad is also super simple to assemble. This salad is definitely fresh and bright, perfect for those hot days of summer.

This cookbook from Deborah Madison is one of the first cookbooks I bought. I still use it often today, it is a wonderful unpretentious book with amazing recipes. I have over the years cooked quite a few recipes from this book, and like this unique salad, the dishes pop with flavour and are excellent. I have all of Deborah Madison’s cookbooks, each one wonderful in its own right.

For more recipes from this cookbook click here.

Ingredients:

1 head lettuce of your choice, Iceberg, Boston, or Bibb lettuce, washed and left whole or sliced into thin ribbons

1 small bunch of young spinach leaves left whole or sliced into ribbons

2 ruby grapefruit, flesh only

2 avocados, cut into small pieces

4 teaspoons sherry vinegar

2 teaspoons raspberry or other fruit vinegar or balsamic

1 shallot, finely diced

Salt to taste

3-4 tablespoons virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon mint, finely chopped

2 teaspoons chives, or scallions finely sliced

Black pepper or Szechuan peppercorns

Combine the vinegar, shallot, and salt in a bowl. Whisk in the oil or mixture of oils. Taste, and adjust the balance of vinegar and oil if necessary. Stir in the mint and chives. Set aside.

Pour the juice off the grapefruit sections, combine them with the avocado slices, and dress them carefully with some of the vinaigrette.

Toss the greens with the rest of the vinaigrette and lay them on salad plates. Set the grapefruit and avocado slices in and among the leaves. Add a grinding of black pepper (or roasted Szechuan pepper) and serve.