What we needed was a crunchy, crispy, fresh beyond-all-reason dinner. And thus, caprese stuffed avocados occurred.
Ingredients:
-2 avocados, or one for each person you are feeding
-Tomato to yield 1 Cup when chopped (roma are traditional for caprese but cherry also work well for this dish)
-Mozzarella to yield 1/2 cup when chopped; I used goat's milk mozzarella because goat's milk doesn't bother my system the way cow's milk does (you needed to know that)
-1/2 cup basil pesto (cilantro pesto also works, and makes the whole dish more zesty than the earthy basil pesto)
-1/2 Cup Balsamic Vinegar
-1 tsp coconut sugar or 1 1/2 tsp honey
-3 cups salad greens
Directions:
2. Very carefully, widen and lengthen the valley made by the 'cado pit to create more room for the caprese filling. ***Important: do not simply toss the extra bits of 'cado. Save them in a small container and throw them over your omelet tomorrow morning. Your future self will thank you..and me, probably
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3. Plate the avocado over the bed of greens.
4. Spoon enough pesto into each avocado half to generously coat the inside of the little valley. If you're like me you'll have to fight the urge to spoon in extra pesto but the pesto can and will dominate the dish if you're not conservative with it, so keep it real |
6. Wait, there is one little extra thing. Once you have your reduction, put one large ice cube into the reduction and swirl it around the pan for about 20 seconds or until the ice cub is about half melted, then discard it. You don't want to water down the reduction but you do want to cool it off so it doesn't create a weird temperature variation in your dish
7. Chop the tomatoes and mozzarella. I waited until this point in the process to chop these two because I want them to be as crisp and fresh as possible but the difference is, let's be honest, probably negligible. If you decide to all your chopping at once, no worries, but please don't set the the tomatoes and mozzarella pieces in the same dish while you get everything else together because the flavors will meld and then the seas may rise. Or turn to blood. Or both. Or is boil? I don't remember which happens first. Just don't do it.
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