Avocado and Cheese Salad – 5 ingredients quick side

One of the benefits of cooking with fresh and seasonal ingredients is that they don’t need a lot of embellishment to shine.  I love trekking down to the farmers market on the weekend to see what is in season and creating a dish around a few simple items. Like this simple Avocado and Cheese combo. Before summer says its final goodbye, I wanted to post this 5 ingredients Summer recipe- a tomato, cheese, cucumber, avocado salad. This is a quick and easy salad to put together that uses just a couple of summer ingredients. Juicy cherry tomatoes, cool, crunchy cucumber and creamy avocado with little mozzarella balls.  I’ve added some mozzarella cheese, red onion and a little cilantro as well.  Toss with a simple red wine vinaigrette (optional)  and the salad is ready in under 10 minutes.

You can make this low fat salad with your eyes closed, it is that easy. Well, maybe peek a little, I don’t want you to cut yourself while you are chopping the cucumber and avocado:) Stir together chopped cucumber, avocado, mozzarella cheese, fresh lemon juice, and parsley or coriander. Season with salt and pepper and dig in with a fork!

This is great as a side dish or serve it as your main course with some crunchy french bread, cheese and maybe some fresh fruit and you’ve got a cool, easy lunch for a hot day. You may soak the red onion slice in a little water, for a couple of minutes, before mincing.  This will remove some of the raw onion taste.

This salad is fast, easy to make and is new take on your normal salad for lunch or dinner parties!  It can also be pretty low in calories if you are using a 0 calorie balsamic vinaigrette! 

 What you need?

• 2 salad tomatoes, chopped
• 1 large seedless cucumber, chopped
  2 large avocados, pit removed and chopped
  Juice of 1 lemon
  1/3 cup crumbled mozzarella cheese
  1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh cilantro
  Salt and black pepper, to taste

How to make?

• Dice tomatoes, cucumber and red onion in cubes. Scoop avocado and chop into pieces. Transfer everything into a mixing bowl and add mozzarella pieces. Mix once
• Pour lemon juice on top and sprinkle salt and freshly ground black pepper, fold everything gently
• Garnish with chopped cilantro and serve with soup and fresh bread. 

Variations-

• You may drizzle a little olive oil on top, preferably infused with garlic. Red wine or balsamic vinaigrette also work wonders with avocado and cheese combo. 
• Replace Mozzarella with Feta or Goats cheese for a different taste. 
• Replace cilantro with dill or parsley, freshly chopped. You may also add finely chopped basil leaves