I Bet My Favorite Salad will be your Favorite!
This is one of my favorite salads, it is simple but rich with flavor. This caprese with avocado and balsamic glaze is a twist on a traditional caprese salad. It can be a carb free appetizer or a side salad for any meal. The fresh from the garden style ingredients offer that farm to table feel. Whether you can pick fresh from your own garden, the local farmers market or your favorite grocery store, this salad is a fan favorite.
The Ingredients
I love using heirloom tomatoes, but I can’t always find those in my store. If you are making this in season for your area, try out the farmers market
for ripe and interesting tomatoes. OR….stick with what you know and pick a consistently good tomato with nice flavor at your local grocery store.
Now let’s talk about the basil….for those of you lucky enough to have a garden or live herbs at the ready, use those! If not, choose a fresh basil (and in case you haven’t heard, don’t store it in the fridge- it will blacken quickly). Buy the basil as close to the time you are making the salad as possible to ensure fresh, gorgeous leaves.
When choosing your avocado, remember you want to cut it into chunks. If it is too soft/ ripe, it will turn out mushy which tastes the same but will not be nearly as pretty! When selecting an avocado, you want a dark skin that is firm-ish but not hard.
Finally, you’ll want to pick a fresh mozzarella, which usually comes in a container of liquid (liquid byproduct of making the mozzarella). Looks a little strange if you’ve never cooked with it, but its delicious.
The balsamic glaze can be found near the oil and vinegars in your store. We love Trader Joe’s glaze but there are a lot of yummy ones out there.
Creating the Caprese Masterpiece
Wash the tomatoes and pat them dry. Cut the tomatoes in slices of your choice. I love the ratio of tomato to cheese to be roughly the same, so I try to cut tomatoes roughly to the shape of the mozzarella, or vise versa.
In the photo here, I was entertaining friends and I wanted more manageable pieces for people to be able to scoop with a spoon and eat without a knife, so I cut both the tomatoes and mozzarella in half.
Open your fresh mozzarella lay out on a paper towel to drain off the excess liquids and pat it dry.
Clip off 8 leaves of fresh basil. Wash the basil and pat it dry as well. I julienne cut the basil so it’s like long strings or basil confetti. The simplest way is to stack a few of the leaves on top of each other. Roll them lengthwise, then cut crosswise to make a string of basil, then repeat until all of your basil is ready.
Next, cut open an avocado and slice the whole avocado into chunks.
Get your serving plate and let’s build the caprese. Lay out the tomatoes, stack the mozzarella on top, scatter the avocado around in between the tomatoes / mozzarella. Salt and pepper as desired. Then drizzle with olive oil and balsamic glaze.
This caprese with avocado and balsamic glaze has exceptional visual appeal and extraordinary flavor!
Meal Ideas to Follow this Salad Appetizer
As it is an Italian themed dish, serving this caprese salad before or with any favorite pasta dish would work well. It could work also as a predecessor to a lasagne or even as a compliment for grilled steaks.
Caprese with Avocado & Balsamic Glaze
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 6-8 1x
Ingredients
- 8 oz fresh mozzarella
- 2 –3 medium sized heirloom tomatoes of any color, or your favorite tomato
- 8 medium to large leaves of fresh basil
- 3T – 4T Olive oil
- Balsamic reduction glaze
- Freshly ground salt & pepper
- Optional: 1 ripe avocado
Instructions
- Wash the tomatoes and slice into ¼ inch thick slices, lay flat on the serving platter of choice
- Take the mozzarella out of the container and pat dry with a paper towel
- Slice the mozzarella into ¼ inch slices and match up to a tomato of a similar size, laying the mozzarella on top of each tomato on the platter. I usually cut my mozzarella in half so that it is a similar size to the tomatoes, but all depends on the tomatoes you are working with.
- Wash the basil and pat dry. Then clip the leaves off.
- Julienne cut the basil by rolling them up length-wise and cutting. I lay several leaves on top of each other so I can cut several at the same time. Lay them on top of each other then roll them all up together the the long way. Hold them together and slice the roll so the basil turns out to be slivers of basil. Set aside.
- Optional step – cut the avocado open and slice each side into 4 slices, then cut again the short way to make chunks of avocado. Spoon out the chunks and scatter around on the plate of mozzarella stacked on the tomatoes. These I don’t necessarily stack on top but you could also slice and just put a skinny slice on each one.
- Drizzle olive oil on each mozzarella slice, skipping from one to the next, trying not to drown it in olive oil but I do allow it to seep down into the plate a little bit.
- Grind salt and pepper over the plate hitting all of the exposed mozzarella, tomatoes, and avocado.
- Drizzle with balsamic glaze to amount and design of your choice.
- Scatter basil over the top of the dish & serve.
Notes
I add avocado to mine most of the time. It’s a nutrient packed veggie to add and it pairs well with the balsamic glaze.
- Prep Time: 20
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