Roasted Garlic Guacamole

It took me nearly a quarter century to realize that avocados weren’t absolutely vile, disgusting and gross. Up until the time I was about 24, I would act like a three year old anytime an avocado came near my food. If avocado or guacamole touched anything, I refused to eat it. Luckily I have since learned the error of my ways and have grown to love guacamole (I’m still working on plain avocado (it’s totally a texture thing)). This is an ever so slight twist on my favorite guacamole recipe and I have to say it’s pretty amazing.

This guacamole recipe is not for the faint of heart. If you don’t love garlic, you should just skip this one, but if you’re like me and insist on adding inappropriate amounts of garlic to everything, this will be the perfect guacamole for you! Roasting garlic might seem like a bit of a hassle to do, but really it couldn’t be easier! And trust me, it’s definitely worth it. The extra flavor it brings to the guac is out of this world.

Roasted Garlic Guacamole

Ingredients

• 2 whole garlic bulbs
• 3 large avocados
• 2-4 limes
• 1/2 large red or white onion, diced
• 3 Tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
• 2 roma tomatoes, diced
• 1 jalapeño, finely diced (include seeds if you want heat!)
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste (be generous)

Instructions

To Roast Garlic:

1. Heat oven to 400. With a sharp knife, chop off top 1/4 to 1/3 of garlic head, so that the bulbs are exposed. Place in small oven safe dish. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Cover with aluminum foil and roast in a 400 degree oven for 45 minutes.

For the Guacamole:

1. Cut avocados in half, remove pit and scoop out flesh into large bowl. Squeeze in lime juice. Remove all the garlic cloves from bulbs and add to bowl. Mash together (you can use a wooden spoon, fork, potato masher, etc.).
2. Add cilantro, onion, tomato, jalapeño, and salt and pepper. Mix together until all the ingredients are well incorporated. Feel free to add more lime juice or salt and pepper to taste.

40 Shades of Green Salad

It’s almost St. Patrick’s Day! That makes me happy. I happen to particularly enjoy St. Patrick’s Day, but I have yet to meet for an excuse for a party that I didn’t like. That and I’m Irish (thanks ma and da). I have some traditional (Mama CC made/approved) and not so traditional things in store for the week. Unfortunately, my celebrations can’t begin until I’m done with midterms. Hopefully dreams of potatoes and whiskey will be enough to see me through…

This salad is definitely not your stereotypical Irish fare. It’s light and healthy and vegan actually, the exact opposite of meat and potatoes.  It would be a great starter for any dinner party. It would definitely help balance out any and all corned beef and whiskey that might be consumed. I was actually surprised by how much I enjoyed this salad. I really like salads with multiple lettuces and this had a great mixture. The crispy, cool iceberg, peppery arugula, soft butter, and some spinach just because. They all really worked together and made each bite interesting. I basically opened the fridge and grabbed anything green. It worked out to be a festive little number and perfect early spring lunch.

Johnny Cash wrote a song “Forty Shades of Green,” which I am a bit embarrassed to say that I only discovered yesterday. My Ireland born, Johnny Cash-loving father will be so disappointed. I remember flying into Dublin when I was younger, and shockingly, it wasn’t raining. I think she was trying to get me to shut up, but my mother told me to try to count the 40 shades of green out the window and that’s been the only connotation I’ve ever known until yesterday. 

 

40 Shades of Green Salad

INGREDIENTS:

For the Cilantro Lime Dressing: 

• 2-3 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 2 limes, juiced
• 1-2 Tablespoons white wine vinegar
• 2 teaspoons grainy Dijon mustard
• 1 Tablespoon cilantro, finely chopped
• kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

For the Salad:

• 2 cups baby spinach
• 2 cups arugula
• 2 cups butter lettuce
• 1/4 head iceberg lettuce, finely chopped
• 1 bunch (about 8) green onions, chopped
• 1/4 pound green beans, trimmed, blanched and cut in half
• 1 avocado, pitted and diced

INSTRUCTIONS:

For the Cilantro Lime Dressing: 

1. In a small bowl, combine all the vinaigrette ingredients and whisk until thoroughly blended.

For the Salad:

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine the lettuces, green onions, and green onions. Gently toss the greens thoroughly with about 3 tablespoons of the vinaigrette. Place the greens onto six salad plates (white looks nice), arranging any of the little pieces that have fallen to the bottom of the bowl on top.
2. Place several pieces of the diced avocado on each plate. Lightly drizzle with a bit more vinaigrette. Serve immediately.

Avocado, Blue Cheese & Spinach Salad

This basically a no-recipe recipe. I happened to have some items around that were begging to be used together, so I gave them what they wanted. I just threw them all together with no real rhyme or reason and luckily this little salad turned out to be a delightful surprise. The creamy avocado and tangy blue cheese go really well together. Much better than I thought they would. I’ve been really into using toasted nuts lately in anything and everything possible. I think they make a great alternative to croutons to give salads a little crunchy bite. This salad came together in under 10 minutes and made a refreshing and tasty summer meal. If my avocados happen to be around along enough to be used in salads (let’s be honest guacamole takes priority here), I look forward to make this one again and again this summer.

Avocado, Blue Cheese & Spinach Salad

• 2 large handfuls spinach
• 1 avocado, pitted and diced
• 1/2 onion, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup blue cheese, crumbled
• 1/4 slivered almonds, toasted
• mustard vinaigrette, recipe follows

1. Divide first 5 ingredients between two plates. Top with vinaigrette and serve.

Mustard Vinaigrette

• 2 Tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 3 Tablespoons white wine vinegar
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• 1 Tablespoon honey
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

1. Combine all ingredients together and mix until well incorporated. Will keep in the fridge up to one week.

Cobb Salad

Everyone loves a Cobb salad. It’s always been one of my favorites. It’s probably not a salad many make at home. Around these parts there seem to be some variation of the salad on just about every restaurant menu. I realized I had all the ingredients I like in the salad on hand, so I decided to make it for lunch one day. There are hardboiled eggs in the original, I however, do not like hardboiled eggs. So I left them out. One of the benefits of making things at home, is you get to decided exactly what goes in and what stays out of a meal.

Cobb Salad for Two

• 2 slices of prosciutto
• 1 bag of mixed salad greens
• 1 large cooked chicken breast, cubed
• 1 large tomato, diced
• 1 avocado, cubed
• 2 ounces crumbled blue cheese
• 1/2 small red onion, diced

1. Pre-heat oven to 350F/180C. Place a small cooling rack on a baking sheet. Put prosciutto on the rack. When oven is heated, place prosciutto in oven and bake for 15 minutes or until crispy.
2. Rinse the salad greens and dry. Divide the salad between two bowls or plates.
3. Divide the rest of the ingredients and add to the salad bowls.
4. Serve with ranch or a balsamic vinaigrette dressing.

My Favorite Guacamole Recipe

So my grand plans of an epic Fiesta week full of recipes kinda puttered out. Mainly because I was busy having fun. The first couple days of fiesta were wonderful. Lots of good food, margaritas, cascarones and friends. It was a lot of fun. The last couple days… let’s just agree to not talk about it. 

On Friday for lunch we went to one of the Mercados for food. It might have been because I was starving and my left thumb was beginning to look tasty, but I swear these were the most amazing chicken tacos I have ever had. The red salsa they had to put on them was delicious. I may or may not have attempted to steal with bottle of salsa, but the guy running the both caught on to me pretty quickly. I also got an awesome fresh squeezed lemonade which I consumed too quickly to get a picture of. But the most exciting part of the day was getting to play skeeball! I am obsessed with skeeball.

Friday night I had some friends I’ve known forever and a day over and we had a great time catching up over margaritas and my favorite salsa. I also made up a batch of guacamole, which was gone approximately 5 seconds after I put it down on the table. It was delicious! And obviously a crowd pleaser. I’ve only recently come to appreciate guacamole. I still hate the concept of avocados. They are weird, plus my dogs used to eat them when I was really little, so in my head I think they just kind of became associated dog food, thus making them gross. But this guacamole is pretty spectacular. I really think the extra lime and the chipotle powder give it just that little extra something that takes it from good to amazing.

My Favorite Guacamole Recipe 

• 3 avocados – peeled, pitted, and mashed
• 1 1/2 limes
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• fresh ground pepper (be generous)
• 1/2 cup diced red or white onion
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
• 2 roma tomatoes, diced
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic (garlic powder can be used in a pinch)
• 1 pinch ground chipotle pepper powder (optional)

In a bowl, add the avocados, salt, pepper and garlic. Juice the lime over these ingredients and mash together (a potato masher is perfect for this). Mix in onion, cilantro, and tomatoes. Stir in cayenne pepper.