Yesterday I was planning on making a nice tomato and avocado salad. I chopped up a good amount of red and green onion, and 5 small vine-on tomatoes. Then I cut into the avocado. It was overly ripe. Too soft to put in a salad. It would be perfect for guacamole or, as it turned out…avocado salad dressing.
Avocados around here are still a dollar each and I actually saw some advertised for 50 cents each. They have really become a year-round national staple. Most of our winter avocados come from Mexico. California avocados come to market more in the summer months. That means year-round guacamole or sandwiches with avocado slices.
I got to admit, I’ve never made an avocado salad dressing. This over ripe situation was a perfect time to start. I searched the internet for recipes and there are quite a few. Some people make a creamy avocado dressing by adding yogurt or buttermilk. Some are loaded with spices. Some, not so much. I wanted to keep it simple. I mean if you add too much extra stuff to the dressing, you might as well go get yourself some ranch dressing. All the avocado’s delicate flavor would be lost.
I knew that lime juice had to be in it. The acidity keeps the avocado from browning. And olive oil but not too much, to keep the calories down. Just enough to smooth it out some. I put two avocados in my little 3 1/2 cup food processor along with 1 tablespoon of lime juice and 1 tablespoon of olive oil, then pulsed it a few times. Tasted it and knew it needed more of both and a little salt. 1/2 tablespoon more of each was put in along with about 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt. Pulsed again and tasted. Now I was getting somewhere. I could taste the lime and the salt made the flavors start to come through. It was good, but it needed an additional flavor. Cumin is a natural with avocado, but I didn’t want a dressing that tasted like guacamole, if you know what I mean. Mary Jo suggested that I try a little bit of grapefruit juice. I mixed a few drops in a teaspoon of the avocado and tried it. Interesting flavor and it had definite possibilities, but I wasn’t so sure of it on tomatoes. Mary Jo rifled through our vast collection of Penzey’s spices and saw dried dill. We both kind of said, “that’s it”. I added 1/2 teaspoon of dill and mixed that in and tried it. That was not quite enough, so I added another 1/2 teaspoon. Now I could taste the dill, but it was not overpowering. We both tasted it and thought that it could use another little kick…vinegar! 1 teaspoon of white wine vinegar rounded out the flavor profile of this dressing. No over the top flavors, just a good blend that works quite well together. A little water was added to the mixture to thin it some.
Next time you have some overly ripe avocados, mix up a batch of avocado salad dressing.
Enjoy!
Ingredients
- 2 haas avocados
- 1 1/2 tbsp lime juice
- 1 1/2 tbsp good olive oil
- 1 tsp dried dill weed
- 1 tsp white wine vinegar
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 4 to 6 tbsp water to thin
Instructions
- Put all the ingredients in a food processor and pulse until the mixture is smooth, scraping down the sides as necessary.
- Add water, a couple tablespoons at a time, until the dressing is the consistency that you desire
Great way to use up avocados that are too ripe for slicing. I love homemade salad dressings.