Recipes

Quick & Easy Veggie Cooking

Watercress, Avocado & Walnut Salad Veg
Serves 2 as a starter, 4 as a side salad.

12 minutes in total – salad prepared while walnuts roasting in oven.

• The Salad
• Bunch of watercress, washed, trimmed and dried
• ½ a small iceberg lettuce, the outer leaves discarded, inner leaves torn up
• 10 or 12 ripe cherry tomatoes, washed, dried and halved
• 1 large ripe avocado
• Small handful of roasted, chopped walnuts
• The Dressing
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1½ tbsp balsamic vinegar
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Preheat oven to 180º/350º/Gas Mark 4.
2. Roast the walnuts whole on the middle shelf of oven for 9-12 minutes.
3. Chop when cooked.
4. Meanwhile, put the watercress, iceberg lettuce and tomatoes in a salad bowl.
5. Make the dressing by shaking the ingredients together in a screw-top jar.
6. Peel and dice the avocado. If it is reluctant to shed its skin the following method may help. Cut the avocado in half and remove the stone. Lay the avocado half skin-side down on a chopping board and, using a sharp knife, gently score through the flesh in a grid pattern, without cutting through the skin. Now push the skin from behind, turning it inside out, so the chunks separate. They can then be detached quite easily using a spoon.
7. Add the avocado chunks to the salad, and toss it all together with the oil and vinegar dressing.
8. Scatter the roasted walnuts over the salad and serve immediately.