Over the years I've gone from never cooking for myself (college), to cooking all the time, to hardly ever cooking because I'm too lazy or tired. Now I'm about to go over the edge of laziness, where walking more than a block for food starts to bother me. Before I find myself ordering terrible Chinese food every night because it delivers to my doorstep and allows me to stay in my pajama pants for just a little longer, I'm putting the breaks on and making a point to cook more.
I'm also finally ready to start eating a wee bit healthier - a few solid nights of eating salads and veggies instead of Phat Philly onion rings and Serrano's pizza is the plan. But I have one problem: I'm still pretty damn lazy and am easily deterred by long, involved recipes. "Long" and "involved" meaning longer than say 10-15 minutes. So what am I to do? Arugula and avocado salad. Boom.
Thanks to a friend in Los Angeles, who served it as a side during a recent visit, I discovered the simplest salad in the world: arugula and avocado..... ..... that's just about it. This humble salad has really helped get me off to a good start. It's so easy, and surprisingly tasty, that I've been eating it every day for about a week. The full list of ingredients is as follows:
Ingredients
Arugula
Avocado
Soft Goat Cheese (if you want)
Olive Oil
Lemon
Salt
Pepper
Making this is as easy as cutting the avocado into chunks, adding some crumbles of soft goat cheese (a log of Laura Chenel is what I keep in my fridge), dousing it with a good olive oil (not extra virgin, something light), and seasoning with lemon, salt, and pepper. Done in minutes!
I think the reason I'm hooked is actually the olive oil I use, which happens to be my all-time favorite olive oil. The name is Capezzana Olio Nuovo, a first-pressed olive oil (olio nuovo) that comes straight from Italy which I have to special order from my dad at Ital Foods. They only get this olive oil once every year, usually sometime in late November/early decemeber, but orders are placed in October in order to guarantee a bottle - it sells out quickly. But, because Amazon is the man, you can just find it online. It's hard for me to describe olive oils, so suffice to say its light on the tongue, bright green, grassy, intense in olive flavor, and meant to be used as a finishing oil (not in hot pans), which makes it perfect for this salad. Screw measuring out a tablespoon to watch your figure! With this and other olive oils like it, pour it on until you're good and goddamn ready to stop.
Enjoy!
Yammiieeeee..........!!