Do you ever wake up first thing in the morning with a craving, a maybe somewhat strange food craving? Lately I have been waking up and within an hour of being up, I start to think about olives. My mouth starts to water and it’s like I can almost taste the salty, briny, fattiness in my mouth, which in itself is kind of weird, but for me is really really weird because up until very recently I completely hated olives. Now, well now I just want to eat them all. And first thing in the morning.
I don’t pretend to understand such things. My brain is going to do what it’s going do. Tell me I like olives, well all right then.
Another thing I am desperately craving is freshy fresh greens which makes complete since because I always crave greens. I am still pretty deep in root veggies and cooked things because winter and Vermont and all, but all I really really really want to eat are buckets of greens. Any kind will do, but the sweet tender baby ones…. So good.
And so I combined my two cravings, greens and olives and hit those craving like POW! BAM! POOF? A salad so simple yet so amazing and mouth watering. I outdid myself here.
To the bestest, most amazingly perfect salad yet!
The stuff. A big ol’ bowl of greens. Black pitted olives, half an avocado, a lemon, toasted almonds, a chunk of red onion, a couple cloves garlic, and pepper.
Almond crumbs. Exactly what it sounds like. Place almonds into a clean food prosessor and pulse until they are crumbs.
Dump the almonds into a bowl. Don’t bother cleaning it out, you are about to use it again. Olives, avocado, garlic, and all the juice of the lemon now get a go in the food processor. Pulsed together into a creamy, kinda of chunky but mostly smooth, mixture of amazing. Add a few tablespoons of cold water if the mixture seems really thick, but other then that, you be done.
Very thinly slice up red onion and slice up a few extra olives.
All here, all ready to go. Just got to toss it together now.
Greens, some slices olives and onion tossed all together in a good amount of the olive avocado goodness then topped with a hardy helping of almond crumbs. Fresh pepper to finish it off.
I was barely able to stop myself from eating it all before snapping a few pictures.
All of my cravings come true…
It’s salad time!
-C
Black Olive Avocado Dressed Greens with Almond Crumbs
Makes enough dressing and crumbs to feed 2-4 people
1/2 of a ripe avocado
1 cup pitted black olives
1 lemon
2-3 tablespoons cold water
1-2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup toasted almonds
2-4 large handfuls of fresh greens (I used a mixture of baby spinach, baby chard, and baby kale. Spring mix or even chopped leaf lettuce would be grand as well)
about 1/2 a small red onion
pepper to taste
Place almonds in food processor and pulse until they are crumbly. Not to fine, a few big chunks are good.. Remove and set aside
Roughly chop the garlic and place in the food processor (no need to clean it out after the almonds). Add in the avocado and most of the olives (leave few behind to slice up). Add in the juice of the lemon. Pulse until mixture is combined but with little specks of olive left.or completely smooth if you wanted too. Scoop out into a container. You want it to be slightly loos so it will mix well with the greens. If the mixture seems really thick, add in a a few tablespoons of cold water to thin out.
Grab the onion and remaining olives and thinly slice.
Now to assemble salad. Place a handful of clean greens into a bowl. Toss a some onions and extra sliced olives into greens. Add as little or as much olive avocado dressing as desired then sprinkle as much or as little of the almond crumbs all over that. Top with freshly find pepper
Then eat it.