Caprese-Stuffed Avocados

Caprese-Stuffed Avocados - drooling okay, and practically compulsory

You know the rain showers which come and are *supposed* to draw the humidity up and away but for whatever reason, don't? You had one job, rain. Ok, two. The first was to water everything. Well today's humidity could have been worse but I'm not sure the rain showers did much to quell it. 

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:

1. Get your avocados ready by slicing in half lengthwise and removing the pit (also called the stone, probably because of how hard of a mass it is)
​

Can we say 'inexact science?' Don't worry if your scooping doesn't produce perfectly even results, the filling will more than cover it and guess what-this is all going to taste amazing, so don't worry about it

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

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

See, you can't even tell that these are the same fruit which so recently looked a little misshapen due to zealous scooping

5. Make the balsamic reduction. This is tricky, ready? Put the balsamic vinegar and the coconut sugar or honey into a small saucepan, and heat on medium until it reduces. That's it
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.

8. Portion your tomato and mozzarella pieces into your avocado halves, thus completing stuffing the avocados

9. Drizzle the balsamic reduction over everything, and enjoy. You'll notice that this recipe contained no meat (the horror), so serve alongside a small piece of fish, or bacon-wrapped waster chestnuts (recipe coming soon). Or, you can increase the amount of greens, add an extra half of stuffed avocado, and it's a meal in its own right. This recipe can easily be adjusted up or down with some simple math but the quantities here will feed 2

Bacon is never not the answer

How did this recipe work for you? Additions or things you did differently? Hilarious and unrelated stories? Leave me a comment below. Looking forward to hearing how this worked for you