Avocado Mango & Fennel Salad

May 29th, 2011 | Favorites, Free of Gluten, Fruit, Salads, Veggies | 4 Comments

I'm not really sure how this dish came to me, other than 1) mangoes were $1 and avocados were $1.50 at the market the other day; 2) I've desperately been wanting to try a salad with fennel in it; 3)I had the most amazing breakfast salad with red quinoa in Scottsdale last week and 4) I love a red onion in fresh summer salad. It was sooooo good that it didn't all make it to dinner and once again my husband said "This is really good honey, why didn't you make more?" I never have the heart to tell him that there was more...I just ate it 2 hours ago.

Ingredients:

1 ripe mango, cut into bite size chunks
1 ripe avocado, chopped
1/4 cup red onion, diced
1/4 cup chopped fresh fennel bulb
1 cup cooked quinoa, cooled to room temperature (Boil 1/2 cup quinoa with 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons water covered for 15 minutes)
1 /3 cup toasted sliced almonds (or toasted almond slivers, or coarsely chopped toasted almonds…you get the idea)
1 tablespoon chopped fennel fronds, for garnish

Vinaigrette:
2 tablespoons grapeseed oil (olive oil will do)
1 tablespoon champagne vinegar (red or white wine vinegar will do)
1 teaspoon honey
salt & pepper, to taste

Directions:

Chop mango, avocado and red onion and place in a large bowl.

To chop fennel: Cut tops off of fennel, as well as bottom side of bulb. Remove tough inner portion (see below) and slice thinly.
Gently remove and chop feathery fronds (the part that looks like dill) to garnish salad, if desired.

Cook quinoa according to package directions, or boil for 15 minutes covered over low heat. Fluff with fork and allow to cool to room temperature.

In a small bowl whisk together vinaigrette ingredients. Add quinoa, fennel, almonds and fennel fronds to bowl with avocado and mango and toss with vinaigrette. Try not to eat the whole bowl before you get to the party!

4 thoughts on “Avocado Mango & Fennel Salad”

Heather on June 1, 2011 at 12:05 am said:

This was so yummy….I brought it to a BBQ as the main side and it was DEVOURED! I used red quinoa and slivered almonds cuz that’s what I had. I highly recommend this and I will be tripling the recipe next time. Gonna try it out on my kids tonight- wish me luck! Thanks so much Amy!

Reply ↓
Robin Brady on June 3, 2011 at 10:46 pm said:

I have everything for this salad but the quinoa. Wondering if I can substitute orzo or rice.

Reply ↓
- Amy on June 4, 2011 at 3:37 am said:
  
  Hi Robin,
  I don’t think I would do it with rice…orzo might be good though…let me know if you try it. If you have plain or whole wheat couscous, that would work well also. Good luck!
  
  Reply ↓
Micaela on June 3, 2011 at 11:19 pm said:

Quinoa is such an amazing salad add-in because it fills me up. And this salad was an amazing mix. I had mine without advocates, because they’re not my thing, but it still turned out delicious!

Reply ↓