Flu Season Recipe Variation: Avocado Salad

We Swaits make a variation on tomato and avocado salad that turns out to be quite popular with our little crowd of church family, friends, and hangers-on. Sunday dinners especially, we love to roll in with a huge bowl filled with many tomatoes, a few avocados, an onion or two, maybe a little garlic, and a little olive oil and rice vinegar. Oh, so good.

The whole family was hit this weekend and into this week (it's Wednesday now, isn't it?!) by the flu. I prepared a version of this salad designed to kick the flu in the teeth (and collaterally, me in the face).

What makes this version of the salad so anti-flu? All that garlic, baby. Oh, yeah. Actually, I put in enough so that I knew it would hurt, but don't let that stop you. The pictures are pretty, and you can be more moderate with the garlic: one clove, crushed instead of sliced.


All told there were probably six cloves of garlic. Let's move on quickly.


I used one avocado and four Roma tomatoes. Choose firm tomatoes, the avocado will provide plenty of mushiness. Avocado is so rich in fat and protein and vitamins that you won't need to have anything else for lunch. If you're looking to feed a bunch of people, just blow the recipe up.

Slice the Romas lengthwise into quarters, and slice the onion into half-rings, the thinner the better.


Choose avocados that are still firm, but definitely give when you squeeze. Slice the avocados in half, then twist so that you can separate the halves without destroying anything.


I usually take the half with the seed and hold it upside down while squeezing at the tip and bottom. The seed should drop out without much coaxing. Or you can half the half, as pictured below.


Place the avocado halves upside down, and half them again. Peel the skin back with your fingers, pulling the avocado into your salad bowl. Go ahead and be messy about it, part of the fun of this salad is having little chunks of avocado and avocado sliminess everywhere. Once you add olive oil and vinegar, it will be like having a creamy salad dressing, but with wonderfully healthy avocado instead of a strange and heavy dairy concoction.


Toss everything into the bowl, olive oil, rice vinegar (slightly sweeter than wine vinegar), salt and pepper. You won't need much oil, be careful. Stir it all up, allowing the avocado the coat everything.



Oh, so good. Hope all that garlic helps you feel better. As a bonus for reading to the end, here's a picture of foxy wife on flu day. Good health and fatness to you all!

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