Celebrate the fresh flavors of fruits and veggies with this Chopped Salad featuring avocado, radish, cucumbers, and sunflower seeds. So delicious!
I am a salad girl. I’ve always loved green salads. My great aunts would stand amazed at family reunions as I would plunk myself down in front of the salad bowl and just mow. I’d rather eat salad than anything else. I never get bored because there are so many fun combinations to put together. I have yet to explore them all.
I love when spring and summer produce roll around with their plethora of fresh fruits and veggies, but there’s no reason we can’t indulge in a range flavors and textures all year round. This Chopped Salad with Avocado and Radish does the trick with some cold weather veggies and fruits.
Pro tip: if you can’t find decent whole tomatoes, use grape tomatoes in the off months. They are more consistently sweet and juicy over the winter months.
Pro tip #2: Use Meyers lemons for this dressing if you can find them. They have a natural sweetness that regular lemons don’t have. In lieu of Meyers lemon juice, use lime juice or add a dash of honey to the dressing.
How to make this good and cheap:
Here are some of the strategies you can use to make this recipe more economical:
- Stock up on ingredients when they are on sale. For instance, when I see a great price on avocados, sunflower seeds, or scallions, I snatch them up and plan my meals around them.
- Compare prices. Currently, romaine lettuce is 50 cents a head at Costco. However, if I found a similar blend cheaper elsewhere, I’d buy it at the competitors.
How I make this recipe easy:
Having the right kitchen tools can really make your time in the kitchen more enjoyable. Over time, I’ve honed my collection so that they are perfect for my needs. Here are the tools that I use for this recipe:
- plastic cutting boards – I have blue boards for veggies and white boards for meat.
- Ergo Chef chef’s knife – I’ve had my set for several years and they work well.
- 1 head romaine lettuce washed and chopped or torn into bite-sized pieces
- 1/2 cucumber peeled and chopped
- 2 radishes sliced
- 1 to mato chopped
- 2 green onions chopped
- 1/4 bunch cilantro leaves (1/4 cup chopped)
- 1 avocado peeled, pitted, and cubed
- 2 tablespoons sunflower seeds or slivered almonds
- juice of one Meyers lemon see note
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- In a large salad bowl, combine the lettuce, cucumber, radishes, tomato, green onion, cilantro, avocado, and sunflower seeds.
- Drizzle the lemon juice and olive oil over the top. Toss gently. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
If you can’t find decent whole tomatoes, use grape tomatoes in the off months. They are more consistently sweet and juicy over the winter months.
Use Meyers lemons for this dressing if you can find them. They have a natural sweetness that regular lemons don’t have. In lieu of Meyers lemon juice, use lime juice or add a dash of honey to the dressing.
Nutritional values are approximate and based on 1/4 recipe.
To make this in advance, prepare the salad without the avocado or dressing and store in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. Add the avocado and dressing right before serving.
Updated April 1, 2017.
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I am a huge fan of Caesar salad. I also like basic romaine lettuce, croutons (homemade from your post!), cucumber, beans, with a light vinaigrette.
My latest fav salad I’d Bibb lettuce, cooled roasted purple and orange beets, crumbled Stilten cheese with a combined balsamic and raspberry vinagrette. Yummy. The raspberry dressing cuts some of the sharpness of the balsamic while not over powering the sweetness of the beets.
I love salads too!
I think my favorite is romaine lettuce, chopped tomato, chopped cucumber, croutons, chopped cauliflower, a tiny bit of feta cheese, salt and pepper with a bit of olive oil and balsamic vinegar….