Seriously, is there anything more awesome than avocado?  At this moment, to this writer, no.  Oh man, do I love avocado.  It’s my new go-to item for when I want to add some richness and fat to a salad, but don’t necessarily have or want meat.  Or… you know, when I want to make super awesome sushi, or guacamole, or…anything. Once Alton Brown taught me (via Good Eats, of course) the safe and quick way to get the pit out, I never feared avocado again… and thus the great green love affair began.

So, let’s talk about tonight’s salad dinner.  I won’t say it’s the absolute best salad I’ve ever made, but it was super delicious, and that’s always okay in my book.

The fiance brought home a big bowl o’ leftover Panera salad, which consisted of greens, a little bit of red onion, and a teensy amount of tomato and cucumber. 

I added a couple handfuls of grape tomatoes, cut in half, a handful of fresh mozzarella balls (the little bitty ones, or you can use a bigger one cut into smaller pieces), cut in half, about 5 little red radishes, trimmed and sliced thin, a handful of sliced banana peppers (straight out of the jar), and one avocado, peeled, pitted, and diced.  Then I sprinkled on a bunch of grated parmesan cheese, some red wine vinegar, a good pinch (or three) of salt, and a generous drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.  Instant Awesomeness!  So you get the acidic bite of the vinegar, but it’s mellowed out by the oil, and then you get this creamy fatty richness from the mozzarella and the avocado (which surprisingly enough, play VERY well together), and you’ve got the fresh crisp salad thing going on too.  How can you go wrong?

I’m thinking I need to be adding avocado to every salad I make for at least the rest of the summer.  It’s going to be a good summer. =)