Summer always has me craving salads, and although I'm not typically a fan of fruit being in my salad (other than maybe some strawberries with balsamic), I found this amazing recipe from a gal I follow on Pinterest, Heidi from FoodieCrush. She likes to use fennel with this salad, but since I had such a huge harvest of shallots in my new garden, I decided to use those instead and added a couple other things to add my own flare. We recently welcomed my 3rd son, Abel into our lives and this salad was so good that we had made it for our guests at the baby shower, and I'm not kidding, everyone commented on how they loved it!!
This salad is the perfect amount of citrus for refreshment, paired with the heartiness and creaminess from the avocado, and also a slight extra crunch with the shallots, the perfect blend if you ask me! You could probably even add some quinoa to it to make it a bit extra filling as a meal along with some chopped chicken or steak which I want to try sometime! Or I will often times make this salad on the side with a fresh-grilled panini, or with a steak or chicken dinner. The dressing also contains grapefruit juice which is so refreshing in itself that it just adds to the zest. Depending on your location, grapefruits are typically in season from January through August where I live in California, but if you're in places like Texas or Florida, then grapefruits will be in season for you from October through June! Grapefruit is one of those fruits that I could eat all year round. Especially if you have too many grapefruits that you either harvest or bought from the store and don't know what to do with, this is a great way to fully enjoy them!
I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as my friends and family!
Ingredients
1 avocado, peeled and cut into chunks
1 handful of small shallots (the size of a quarter)
2 pink grapefruits, peeled and cut into 1 inch squares
2 handfuls of baby spinach
Shaved Parmegiano-Reggiano cheese
Citrus dressing
¼ cup fresh squeezed grapefruit juice
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon minced shallot
1 teaspoon grainy brown mustard
½ teaspoon pink himalayan salt
Freshy ground black pepper
Instructions
Combine the avocado, shallots, grapefruits and greens in a large salad bowl. Drizzle with 3-4 tablespoons of the citrus dressing and season with the salt and pepper. You can adjust the seasoning to your liking and top with the shaved pieces of the Parmesan.
For the Dressing
Combine all the ingredients to a small mixing bowl and whisk together until fully mixed.