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Grapefruit and Avocado Salad

Berkshire Recipes - Grapefruit and Avocado Salad - LEON BOUTEILLER

by LEON BOUTEILLER

Young love, it brings back memories. Exuberance of youth, foolishness and uncertainty all part of the early inexperience of personal relationships. Pining for someone who pines for you. The overthinking, overreacting to flirtatiousness, experiencing desires and occasional rejection. Late in high school and a year or so after, I was fortunate to be with the girl I wished. It never worked out but her mom and dad adored me. There were many evenings I would stay for dinner and have a cocktail, so adult, followed by her mother’s latest delicious culinary inspiration. These dinners were influenced by her father who worked in Manhattan as a graphic designer. He introduced her too many food trends from some of the finer dining establishments. Although I knew avocados as guacamole, it wasn’t until I’d shared a meal or two with her family and introduced to other pleasures of avocados. Paired with grapefruit, onion, bitter greens and Green Goddess dressing, it was a revelation and has been a favorite over the years. Not with that salad dressing.

These days I prefer to make this salad with some flavorful greens such as arugula, endives or some mixture that includes bitterness or bite to offset the bland nature and richness of the avocado. I like red onion for color and flavor and a simple vinaigrette featuring grapefruit juice. I call it a winter salad because of the grapefruit and the relative abundance of avocados this time of year. This is a mighty good salad to begin or end a meal and goes well with meats or meatless, fish or poultry.

GRAPEFRUIT and AVOCADO SALAD
Serves two but scales up wit ease

Ingredients:

  • bitter greens or a mix with arugula, spinach etc…

  • 1 ripe avocado

  • 1/2 a modest sized red onion

  • 1 good sized grapefruit (I’m fond of the red fleshed ones)

  • 1/4 cup grapefruit juice squeezed from the core of the grapefruit

  • 1 tablespoon sherry vinegar

  • 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

  • 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

  • salt and pepper to taste

Method:

  • with a sharp knife, cut the ends off of the grapefruit and then cut the peel away from the flesh as cleanly and with as little waste of the fruit as possible

  • then cut the sections (supremes) away from the fibrous dividers by running the knife neatly along the edges of each section and then set them aside

  • press or squeeze the remaining core of the grapefruit to extract roughly a 1/4 cup of juice. If needed, you can supplement with a little orange juice

  • whisk together the juice with the vinegar, mustard and olive oil with a little salt and black pepper to form a simple vinaigrette

  • after peeling the onion, cut it top to bottom in 1/8 inch julienne slices

  • cut the avocado, top to bottom all the way around and turn the two halves in opposite directions to separate them. Remove the pit by sticking it smartly with a sharp knife and then giving it a twist. The pit should come out easily

  • with a soup spoon or small serving spoon, insert the spoon along the edge of the skin and separate the flesh away in one piece

  • slice each half of the avocado into five or six slices

  • place a serving of greens on each plate or bowl and then decorate each with the grapefruit, avocado and onion

  • using as much or as little of the vinaigrette as you like, dress the salads and serve

I very much enjoy this salad and we have it several times a year. Though it may remind me of an unrequited love, I believe it worked out for the better.

Enjoy!

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