One of the finest pieces of advice given to me as a young newlywed was always to put plenty of avocado in a bowl of green salad, but never to tell anyone it was there. That way, only the one who knows it is there knows to dig to the bottom for it.
Half an avocado may contain the same number of calories (138) as a bag of crisps, but one is “good” fat and one “bad” fat, and I know which one I prefer to eat. Every Sunday morning, I crush half an avocado on to a thick slice of unbuttered toasted sourdough bread, drench it in lime juice, add a pinch of Maldon sea salt and a grind of pepper, and sit back against the pillows with the newspapers, in a blissful state.
The smooth, green-skinned Fuerte avocados in the shops from South Africa (until October) lend themselves to such acts of greed, being ready to eat and requiring no preparation or cooking.
In fact, avocado pears — for they are, in fact, fruit — are quite revolting when heated. Nor should they be served with any form of rich cream, mayonnaise, hollandaise, coconut milk, cheese, pasta, potatoes or anything deep-fried. All you have to do is serve this creamy, nutty, beautiful, cholesterol-free fruit with my new favourite summer salad of soft green leaves, fresh prawns, tomatoes, spring onions and coriander leaves, cutting the richness back with lime juice.
Better still, serve it without the avocado. What they don’t know, they won’t miss.
Ingredients
Serves 4
Prep: 15 mins
Cook: 5 mins
16 medium prawns in their shell
salt
2 spring onions
2 ripe tomatoes
1 ripe avocado
1 soft-leaved lettuce
3 tsbp fresh coriander
1 tbsp chervil
Dressing:
2 tbsp lime juice
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
sea salt and pepper
METHOD
De-vein the prawns by piercing the back of the shell with a thin bamboo skewer and drawing out the intestinal tract. Cook the prawns lightly in a pan of simmering salted water, until pink. Drain and cool.
Peel the prawns, leaving the little tails. Finely slice the spring onions and cut the tomatoes into small wedges.
Make the dressing by whisking the lime juice with extra virgin olive oil, sea salt and pepper. Cut the avocado in half around the central stone, remove the stone, slice thickly, and toss in the dressing. Trim the lettuce, separate the leaves and divide between four bowls.
Add the prawns, tomato, spring onions, coriander, chervil, salt and pepper to the avocado, toss lightly, and arrange on the leaves.
Prawn salad with avocado and lime
First, make sure your advocado is well hidden