Author Notes
I first made this salad one summer evening a few years ago when I came home from work with an avocado and a basket of plump Yellow Pear tomatoes from the market. It's a product of rooting about in the cupboards and tossing random ingredients together. Now it's my favorite summer meal, alongside a hard boiled egg and homemade focaccia. When Yellow Pear tomatoes aren't in season, I'll substitute a regular yellow tomato. Red tomatoes are too sweet for this salad; they overpower the richness of the avocado. —beyondcelery
Ingredients
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1
avocado
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8
dried apricots, diced
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1/4 cup
sliced almonds, lightly toasted
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1
yellow tomato or about 10 small Yellow Pear tomatoes
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10
leaves fresh spinach, roughly cut
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1 tablespoon
good olive oil
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1/2 tablespoon
balsamic vinegar
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1 teaspoon
fresh lemon juice
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2
shakes freshly ground black pepper
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pinch or two Himalayan pink salt
Directions
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Prepare your ingredients: dice dried apricots, lightly toast sliced almonds, wash and roughly cut spinach leaves, slice yellow tomato into halves. If you're using Yellow Pear tomatoes, just cut them in half.
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In a small bowl, whisk together olive oil, balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, pepper, and salt. You're mainly dissolving the salt into the dressing. Let it sit for a minute or two before using, so the balsamic vinegar and olive oil mostly separate again.
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Layer the salad on 2 plates. Make a bed of roughly cut spinach. Top with slices of tomato. Peel and slice avocado over this. (You may prepare slices of avocado a few minutes ahead, but you want the slices to be very fresh on the salad or they'll begin to brown.) Scatter diced dried apricots over avocado, then scatter toasted almonds over everything. Dress it right before serving, spooning the dressing gently over the salad so oil and vinegar are visibly distinct. Serve at room temperature.
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