Hearts of palm salad

This is a refreshing salad that I can’t recommend enough, especially if your palate needs a reboot.

I mix ripe, firm avocado with sliced hearts of palm, Caprese tomatoes and my favorite quick pickled red onions. There is no need for any oil, just fresh lemon or lime juice and the pepper of your choice. I’ve experimented a lot with different peppers and I especially like chili pepper with fresh lime juice. You could use paprika or sumac, but I always go back to Aleppo pepper for this simple but beautiful salad.

Choose ripe but firm avocados that will keep their shape well and not dissolve into mush. Caprese tomatoes are the best option for this recipe. They stay intact and they don’t have as much water as other tomatoes, so there won’t be a pool of liquid at the bottom of the serving bowl.

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I’ve previously published my quick pickled onion recipe to accompany Greek salad, and I include it again here. Those onions make everything more delicious, so it’s great to have a jar in the fridge. I add them to shawarma, kofte pita sandwiches and to fresh garden salads.

This is an easy recipe to adjust. It’s forgiving, so if you have a little less avocado than tomato, it still works out nicely.

Ingredients:

For the salad
3 medium-sized avocados, peeled and cubed — about 1 cup, more or less
Caprese tomatoes, about 1 cup quartered
Hearts of palm, 1 cup sliced
¼ cup pickled red onions (see recipe below)
Juice of half a large lemon or lime
Sprinkle of sea salt
Sprinkle of Aleppo pepper, chili pepper, sumac or paprika

For the onions
1 medium red onion, about ¼-inch wide slices; you can make these thinner if you prefer
1-2 teaspoons white sugar (more sugar makes the onion a little less sharp)
White vinegar to cover the onions

Prepare the onions first since they need a little time to marinate.

Peel a purple onion and cut it in half. Cut each half into slices of your preferred width. Some people like these onions really skinny, but you can cut them into chunks if you prefer.

Put 1 teaspoon of sugar into a Mason jar, then add the sliced onions into the jar.

Cover the onions with white vinegar, place the lid on the jar and give it one shake to stir the sugar into the vinegar.

Let rest for a minimum of a half-hour before using. Onions can pickle at room temperature, but after an hour, put on a tight-fitting lid and refrigerate the jar.

Squeeze the lemon or lime juice into a bowl, then add the avocado chunks, gently stirring them into the lemon juice until the avocado is well coated. This will help the avocado not to brown. You can add a few avocado pits into the salad to help the avocado from discoloring, but it’s best to make this as close to serving time as possible.

Add the hearts of palm and quartered tomatoes to the bowl.

Remove a few pieces of pickled onions from the jar and chop them into smaller pieces.

Sprinkle the salad lightly with sea salt, stir well and taste a piece of avocado to see if it needs more salt. Salt to taste if needed and sprinkle the top of the salad lightly with about 1/16 teaspoon of your preferred pepper.

I love this salad with grilled steak or chicken because the flavors just pop with the meat, but it also goes well with grilled or sautéed fish.

I hope that you enjoy this recipe as much as I do. Bless your hands! PJC

Jessica Grann is a home chef living in Pittsburgh.