Simple Avocado Salad

This avocado salad recipe is packed with fresh flavor! Impress everyone with this easy mix of veggies and citrus dressing.

When the summer heat is at its peak, we all crave salads. Here’s one that blew us away with its fresh and tangy taste: this one Easy Avocado Salad! Simple, quality ingredients come together to create magic, and it’s all about those contrasts here. Rich avocado pairs with chunks of sweet cherry tomatoes, savory onions and a zesty citrus vinaigrette. This is one of those recipes where the first bite raises eyebrows with satisfaction and you immediately want to take another bite.

What’s in This Avocado Salad Recipe?

An avocado salad is a pretty loose concept. In fact, you can mix diced avocados with any veggie, drizzle with olive oil and vinegar, and end the day. For this recipe we wanted to keep it super simple but still have a touch of sophistication. Here’s what you need:

• Ripe avocados
• cherry tomatoes (Multicolors are nice if you have them)
• Red onion
• Garlic
• olive oil
• lemon juice
• Dijon mustard

Vinaigrette: an easy lemon vinaigrette

The dressing in this avocado salad recipe is our favorite lemon dressing. This dressing has basic ingredients but is simple packed up with a tangy, lemony taste. The amount of dressing is reduced here to accommodate the amount of this salad. But if you prefer, you can make the larger recipe linked above and have leftovers for more salads throughout the week.

The dressing literally coats the avocados, so if you want to use a little less than the recipe says, that’s fine too! Once you try it, you’ll be obsessed (we hope) and want to put it on everything. Try it on a Niçoise salad as a main course or on an everyday chopped salad.

How to cut an avocado: the best way!

The most important thing to remember when preparing this avocado salad? How to cut an avocado! It can be difficult to remove the core and roll the dice without risk of injury. Here are the best practices for slicing an avocado, with a good tip for removing the pit:

• Remove the core: Using a large chef’s knife, slice the avocado lengthwise, then twist the two halves to separate. Take a towel and put the avocado on it. In one smooth but quick motion, smash the knife into the pit of the avocado, then twist to remove.
• Safely remove the knife core: Do not remove the avocado stone by hand! Instead, pull the cutting board close to your body, then place the core against the very edge of the cutting board and pull back to free it from the knife. (See the video here.)
• Remove from the skin and cut into slices: Use a large spoon to scoop the avocado out of the skin. Place the avocado cut side down, slice and then dice.

Mix-ins for avocado salad

This avocado salad recipe is super easy: a great template to customize with your own additions! There are a thousand and one ways to vary the pleasure! Here are some of our favorite ideas (and let us know yours):

• Corn: Add 1 cup canned or cooked corn on the cob (great for summer!)
• White beans: Add a 15 ounce can, drained and rinsed
• Black beans: Add to a 15-ounce can, substituting 1 ½ tablespoons of lime juice in the dressing
• Herbs: Vary the herbs with basil, coriander, parsley, chives or dill
• Pepper: Add a diced bell pepper for a crunch and a load of vitamin C

What else would you add to this salad?

Variation: lamb’s lettuce with avocado

Another variation of this avocado salad: ours Lamb’s lettuce with avocado! This one offers a quick tip: use store-bought pico de gallo to reduce hash time. You don’t have to make a salad dressing either, it’s even faster and saves calories. We love it too! (Or more?) Head over to this Avocado Corn Salad Recipe.

More salad recipes

There are many more great salad recipes where they came from! Here are some of our best summer salad recipes: