Spinach Salad with Avocado, Mango and Citrus-Chili Dressing

L

lin_in_seattle

Well-known member
This looks wonderful to me...I'm trying it as soon as I can get a mango to ripen. I think the dressing will be great on other types of green salads as well.

Serves 4 to 6

Dressing:

- 3 tablespoons olive oil

- 3 tablespoons orange juice

- 1 tablespoon lime juice

- 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar or white balsamic vinegar

- 2 teaspoons chili powder

- 1 teaspoon ground cumin

- ¼ teaspoon salt

- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Salad:

- 1/3 cup red onion, sliced paper thin

- 1 bag (10 ounces) prepared baby spinach leaves

- 1 avocado

- 1 tablespoon lime juice

- 1 ripe mango

1. To prepare the dressing: In a jar combine the olive oil, orange juice, lime juice, vinegar, chili powder, cumin, salt and pepper. Refrigerate until ready to use.

2. To prepare the salad: Place the onions in a bowl, cover with water and set aside 15 minutes. Drain and press the excess moisture out with a paper towel.

3. Remove the stems from the spinach leaves and put into a salad bowl. Add the onions. Cover with a paper towel and refrigerate until ready to serve.

4. Peel the avocado and slice thinly. Drizzle the lime juice over the slices. Remove the peel from the mango and cut away the flesh in large chunks, then slice thinly.

5. Add the avocado and mango to the spinach. Toss gently with the dressing and serve.

Data per 1 of 6 servings:

Calories 161

Protein 2.54g

Fat 12.56g

Carbohydrates 12.78g

Sodium 139mg

Saturated fat 1.75g

Monounsaturated fat 8.48g

Polyunsaturated fat 1.31g

Cholesterol 0mg

Adapted from "Big Flavors of the Hot Sun" by Chris Schlesinger and John Willoughby

Copyright © 2006 The Seattle Times Company

 
When choosing a mango the color depends on the variety but it should "give" a bit when you press

on it- a little like a good peach. You cannot really tell by the color but the mango should not be hard.

 
Thanks for the ideas, Cathy, I mostly get the one that seems to....

have some give..if any...and just keep checking it...most are hard in the stores here.

And didn't know that about an avo...great! smileys/smile.gif

 
When I buy avocados

I get the brightest, hardest, and shiniest green ones they have and set them aside to ripen on their own sweet time. The reason is too many frustrating experiences with big black spots on the semi-ripe ones from everyone picking them up and pushing on them to test them at the store. As they ripen those spots start rotting before the rest of the fruit gets ripe (and I like them to ripen to the "room temp butter" state). This method has been working very well for me. It's also amazing how many days (weeks) an avocado will keep in the fridge once it ripens. Since this method involves lots of waiting, I usually grab several every time I'm at the store and have them in continuous development of the ripening process.

 
But don't get the big shiny green ones from FL.Get the bumpy

skinned Haas avocadoes. Much more flavor.

 
Richard, I bought some organic avocados at the Farmer's Market last weekend .....

They were hard, bumpy, very nice looking. Folks were complaining they were picked too early and walking off. I bought two of them, one ripened within three days, the other is coming. Oh my, the buttery flavor was wonderful. I plan on telling those folks if I see them, this week, what they missed!
Ya gotta love those farmer folks who come to market every week.

 
totally agree

love those farmer's markets (and the pick your own farms), unfortunately, we don't get avocados here at ours : (

I happened on buying the really green avocados by accident. That's all they had and I thought I would try to rush them along. Didn't work, I cut into one and it was like rubber. Ick. So several days later when I tried again, I discovered how amazingly wonderful they were. They ripened to perfection with no blemishes. Bright green and hard is the only way I buy them now.

 
So I know the Haas avocados are bumpy and dark green, but are you saying...

that the bright green ones are just underripe Haas? Or are they a different type of avocados? I've never bought the bright green ones, afraid they would be hard inside, too.

Would the bright green ones ripen in a few days? Are those the ones you all are talking about?

I love them and wish I could grow my own tree, but seeing that my roses just FROZE yesterday morning, I suppose that's out of the question! :eek:(

 
Dawn...

sorry for the confusion. I buy the small bumpy ones. Since they're nearly black when ripe, the very unripe state was what I was referring to as shiny green. I can see where the confusion would be with those large smooth ones. I don't know about those.

 
I have a Haas tree, and I used to have another old tree that produced large but narrow green

pear-shaped avocados that were out of this world. (It died.)

If you're talking about the big roundish green ones, I agree--not much flavor, but if you see big ones that are very pear-shaped, give them a try.

 
Joe, I've heard of those.

there are so many different varieties which we don't find at the market. I'm sure there are some amazing ones out there that don't "ship" well so we'll never see them unless we can grow them.

 
Sadly, I can't find them for sale anywhere. They were fairly quick to ripen,

probably a negative factor for commercial growers.

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top