Peashoot and avocado salad with lime and basil dressing.

As the weather has been so nice recently I have still been eating as though it’s still summer which basically means lots of salads still! As well as the weather, I have been growing lots of veggies in my garden this year and as I am still getting lots from them I need to use them up and lots of the things I am growing lend themselves best to summery foods like salads. This salad is one I have made lots, occasionally varying a couple of ingredients but it has pretty much been one of my staple recipes as it’s so easy and so tasty!

You will need:

Salad:

Rocket or peashoots- one big handful per person

Half an avocado per person

A quarter of a cucumber per person

Pumpkin seeds to serve

Dressing:

Olive oil

One lime

A handful of basil leaves- I used thai basil but any would do

None of these ingredients really need anything doing to them so you can assemble the salad in literally less than ten minutes!

Method:

First put the greens at the bottom of the bowl.

Cut the cucumber into slices and then quarter each one of these slices. I like to take small slices out of the outside of the cucumber first so the pieces look prettier, but this is obviously optional!

Then cut your avocado into cubes, I do this by cutting the avocado in half then removing the stone, cutting each half in half again and then peeling the skin off and then cutting each quarter into cubes.

Scatter the cucmber and avocado pieces over the lettuce then finally scatter a generous seriving of pumpkin seeds over the top.

To make the dressing, fill a quarter of a jam jar with olive oil, then squeeze the whole lime into it. Put the basil leaves into the jar and ‘muddle’ them using a wooden spoon (basically bash the basil over and over again to break it up and infuse the flavour into the oil lime mix). Put the lid on the jam jar and shake really well. Strain the mixture to get rid of the basil bits- or you can leave them in.

Pour the dressing all over the salad, ensuring the avocado especially gets covered. The lime in the dressing will ensure the avocado doesn’t go brown so it will keep in the fridge for a couple of days and will still look pretty!