Avocado Salad With Herbs and Capers

By Melissa Clark

Avocado Salad With Herbs and Capers
Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times
Total Time
30 minutes
Rating
5(2,308)
Comments
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This salad is both dead simple to make and highly luscious. It gets a velvety richness from the avocados. The salad is enlivened by a splash of red wine vinegar in the dressing and a handful of briny capers sprinkled on top. The herbs here are used in two ways, both chopped into a garlicky salsa verde-like dressing, and strewn in whole leaves across the plate. Choose your avocados carefully for this; look for firm but not rock-hard fruit, without any mushy spots. If you’d like to substitute another variety of avocado for the Haas you can, but the salad may not have the same texture. Then serve it either as a side dish or an appetizer with a meal of roasted or grilled meats, chicken or fish. Or make it the foundation of a light lunch, with some crusty bread and tangy cheese on the side.

Featured in: What to Do With a Perfect Avocado

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Ingredients

Yield:4 servings
  • 1large bunch cilantro
  • 1large bunch parsley
  • 2scallions, very finely chopped
  • 1jalapeño, seeded and very finely chopped
  • 1 to 2garlic cloves, finely grated or minced
  • ½teaspoon fine sea salt, more to taste
  • 2tablespoons red wine vinegar, more to taste
  • ½cup extra-virgin olive oil, more for serving
  • 4Haas avocados, peeled, pitted and sliced
  • 4teaspoons capers, drained
  • Flaky sea salt and black pepper
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (4 servings)

579 calories; 57 grams fat; 8 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 40 grams monounsaturated fat; 7 grams polyunsaturated fat; 21 grams carbohydrates; 15 grams dietary fiber; 2 grams sugars; 5 grams protein; 656 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Reserve a cup of whole cilantro leaves; finely chop the rest of the leaves and tender stems. Transfer chopped leaves to a medium bowl.

  2. Step 2

    Reserve a cup of whole parsley leaves; finely chop the rest of the leaves and tender stems. Transfer chopped parsley to the bowl with the cilantro. Add scallions, jalapeño, garlic, fine salt and vinegar. Stir in oil. Taste and add more salt, vinegar or both, if needed.

  3. Step 3

    Scatter the whole cilantro and parsley leaves over 4 serving plates. Fan the avocados out on top, and sprinkle lightly with fine salt to taste. Spoon the herb dressing over the avocado, making sure to include the oil in the bowl, and top with capers. Sprinkle with flaky sea salt and black pepper and serve.

Ratings

5 out of 5
2,308 user ratings
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Comments

Erich Hayner

The secret to keeping cut avacado green is to use a widely available product by Ball® called Fruit Fresh®. It is vitamin C or ascorbic acid powder, which can also be used. Added to guacamole, it will remain unoxidized and green for an astonishingly long time. This product works on many vegetables and fruits (it is outstanding for soaking raw artichokes). No, this isn't an advert, I'm just a guy in Oakland California.

dimmerswitch

With 50-iwh notes so far about how to buy and ripen avocados and keep them from browning after cutting, thought I'd weigh in with a comment on the recipe itself. Made it this afternoon. As written. Simple to make, simply delicious to eat. No need to worry about how to keep the avocados from discoloring, as discussion here, since they are sliced, plated and eaten in pretty quick order. One clove of garlic was ample. This dish, good bread, white wine. Sunday "L-inner"!

Danny

I schedule my avocados, buying them -- hard as a rock -- four or five days in advance of using. More often than not they're perfect when I use them. And if I have extra ripened avocados, they store nicely in the fridge for a couple of days.

Courtney

This is a staple of ours. We always serve it when we have guests, and we always have to link them the recipe. Everybody raves about and loves this. We don't do the bed of herbs, and we don't do cilantro because I have that soap gene, but we do the dressing with extra parsley and it is stellar. SO good. Make it into avocado toast and it is next level!

Nancy

I always like Melissa Clark's recipes. But this is a weird dish - the stems and leaves of parsley and cilantro forming a base for the avocados? Very messy to wrangle stems popping out all over with your garlic bread or quesadillas. Truthfully I wouldn't prepare it again. I halved the recipe, and still there was too much avocado for one sitting, even for two people.

Julie

This is outstanding. Next time I’ll make a big batch to keep in the fridge. We used white wine vinegar instead of red as it was what we had on hand and no issues. As others have said, one clove of garlic is perfect. This really takes any sandwich to the next level

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