Avocado & Black Beans Salad

Anyone who has seen even a few of my posts probably knows that this is my favorite kind of meal. This or similar combinations of ingredients appear frequently on my table and in the blog. Often the ingredients used are entirely vegan, and other times I include dairy as I did today, just because I felt like going all-out. Either way it is a complete and delicious dish.

It began by oven roasting a chopped tomatillo, a few chopped Serrano chiles, chopped onion, a couple chopped spears of asparagus, a garlic clove, a spritz of olive oil and a sprinkling of whole cumin seeds and kosher salt.

 

While the veggies were roasting I turned my attention to other aspects of the dish, so much so that the veggies ended up roasted almost too much. Even though I remained within arms reach of the oven and never left the kitchen, evidently my mind did. No worries. Just more good flavor.

 

The roasted veggies were added to roughly chopped avocado along with chopped cilantro, kosher salt and a spritz of white wine vinegar to prevent the avocado from oxidizing.

 

Meanwhile I had heated some rinsed canned black beans to which I added plain tomato sauce, powdered cumin, coriander powder, powdered chipotle pepper and a pinch of dried Mexican oregano. I didn’t go wrong by adding a pinch of brown sugar.

 

Spinach is at its best right now in the garden. The leaves are huge, with one leaf large enough to cover an entire sandwich, yet they are so tender they must be handled with care to prevent tearing. I lined a dish with spinach leaves and thinly sliced cucumber and radishes.

 

I placed the (cold) avocado mixture on one side and the (heated) beans and queso fresco (Mexican crumbling cheese) on the other.

 

A few wedges of grape tomatoes added a bit of color.

 

The other day I yanked up all the cilantro plants in the garden that were bolting and going to seed to make space for the next phase of planting. So they wouldn’t go completely to waste, I put some of the leaves and stems into a food processor with a little apple cider vinegar then transferred the pulverized cilantro onto a clean muslin cloth and squeezed out all the liquid. The resulting cilantro juice was frozen in ice cube trays for future use.

 

Well, the future is now. To make a dressing for the salad I mixed a couple melted cubes of cilantro juice with sour cream. Of course homemade fermented hot sauce always finds its way onto the table for this kind of meal.

 

Onion chives are blooming now. What better way to use them than to adorn this delicious dish?

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