I love avocado and citrus together. I routinely pair them together on salads and serve them as a side to many Mexican dishes, sometimes with black beans, corn and cotija cheese. In this case, I wanted to make the salad a little more glamorous for a dinner party. Also, recently I have seen the ingredients paired with goat cheese and I wanted to try my hand at the pairing, but without an overwhelming concentration of goat cheese that comes from sprinkling it over the top or the salad. Inspiration hit in the form of making goat cheese vinaigrette.
¼ pound lobster meat (crab, shrimp, light flakey fish all substitute well)
2 pink grapefruits; segmented
2 oranges; segmented (reserve the juice)
1 large Florida avocado or 2 Hass avocados
1 bunch of watercress, stems removed
1 head Boston, butter, or Bibb lettuce
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt and pepper
Goat cheese vinaigrette:
2 ounces goat cheese (I used Cypress Grove’s Purple Haze which has lavender and fennel pollen on it)
4 tablespoons orange juice
1 tablespoon honey
Makes 4 large salads.
Wash and tear the salad into bite size pieces. Toss it in a large salad bowl with the olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
Make the vinaigrette by whisking the ingredients together. It should be very liquid. Add more juice as needed.
Assemble the salad on individual plates ensuring the avocados, citrus segments and lobster is visible. Drizzle with the dressing. If you aren’t serving right away, you may wish to drizzle a little juice on the avocados to keep them from browning.