Barbecue Chicken Salad with Balsamic Vinegar

My hubby is the best at barbecuing chicken.  So when we had leftover chicken, I saw my opportunity for a chopped chicken salad with basil and balsamic vinegar.  It was delicious.

Barbecue Chicken Salad with Balsamic Vinegar
Mixed spring greens (not too much lettuce in this one!)
Red endive chopped
Carrots, yellow or orange bell pepper, persian cucumber, cherry tomatoes, avocado, onion all chopped
Basil chopped (generous amount)
Barbecued chicken in cubes

Dressing:
Olive Oil and best available Balsamic Vinegar--It makes a huge difference!
Two of the best Balsamic Vinegars I've tried are pictured here.  Raleys makes an excellent brand.  Copper Hill is made in  Woodland, California.  It should be thick.

 I don't measure when I make dressing.  It just takes too much time.  Learn to eyeball the amounts you will need.

Mediterranean Green Salad for Spring

Although it is more cost effective to buy and prepare lettuce, sometimes I want to make a quick salad from prepared ingredients without all the washing and drying.  I recently purchased the Herb Salad Mix from Trader Joe's (washed three times and ready to use).  I added some of T.J.'s chick pea mix called Balela (garbanzos, tomato, and black beans) along with a few other crisp spring ingredients.  The celery heart is from the bottom of the celery, the part you usually throw out, cleaned and sliced thin.

Mediterranean Salad with Chick Peas and Herbs
Herb salad mix
Balela mix (see above)
Belgian endive chopped
Persian cucumber in half and sliced thin
Red pepper, diced
Celery heart sliced thin
Avocado and Cherry tomatoes
Sunflower seeds

Celery Heart

Dressing
In a small bowl combine one or two tablespoons olive oil with about two teaspoons vinegar of your choice (I used white wine vinegar), salt and pepper.  Beat to emulsify and dress salad.

Endive

Persian Cucumber

The Avocado: Genetics or Environment?

Hawaiian Avocado

I recently returned from Hawaii where we purchased our favorite Hawaiian foods (Mango, Papaya, Persian cucumbers, sweet onions, HUGE avocados) at the Farmer's Markets held each day in different locations around each island.  The market in Kapa'a on Kauai was a mob scene.  I romanticized that the avocados tasted creamier and were larger there just because they originated in Paradise.  I found out the variety grown most widely there, the Sharwil (grown for production and export in Kona but also by many people in their yards) originated from a volunteer plant on a farm in Australia in 1951 and was brought to Hawaii in 1966.  It is larger with a looser pit and thin green skin that doesn't get dark when ripe and actually stays fairly hard and leathery.  You can purchase these avocados on the mainland at various times of the year.  US consumers prefer the smaller, firmer Hass variety because they can tell it is ripe by the black skin.  Don't get in the same rut!!  The great reward for branching out is the incredible subtle and creamy flavor of this larger avocado.  We ate off of it for a week in salads and it stayed beautiful just like this, loose pit and all.