Cuban Green Salad with Avocados Recipe
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The classic green salad gets some Latin flair with the addition of black beans, caramelized onions, avocados, and lime vinaigrette. At Nacional 27 in Chicago, it’s served as part of the restaurant’s Cuban Christmas menu, but it’d be a great side salad for anything from roasted chicken to grilled fish.
This recipe was featured as part of our Supercharge with Superfoods photo gallery.
- 1/2 cup canola oil
- 2 medium red onions, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced
- 2/3 cup sherry vinegar
- 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
- 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 4 medium ripe tomatoes, cut into sixths
- 4 medium ripe avocados, halved lengthwise and cut crosswise into sixths
- 1 head romaine lettuce, torn into bite-size pieces
- 1 head Bibb lettuce, torn into bite-size pieces
- 1 head Boston lettuce, torn into bite-size pieces
- 1 cup cooked black beans
- Heat 1/4 cup of the canola oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. When oil shimmers, add onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until golden brown and soft, about 10 minutes.
- Add 1/3 cup of the sherry vinegar, and scrape up any browned bits that have adhered to the bottom of the pan. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
- Meanwhile, make the vinaigrette. Combine remaining 1/3 cup sherry vinegar and lime juice in a medium nonreactive bowl, and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. While constantly whisking, pour in remaining 1/4 cup canola oil and olive oil in a slow, thin stream until dressing is well combined; set aside.
- To serve, combine cooled onions, tomatoes, avocados, lettuces, and black beans in a large bowl and toss. Add 3/4 of the vinaigrette and toss until greens are well coated. Taste, add more vinaigrette as desired, and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Beverage pairing: Veramonte Sauvignon Blanc Reserva, Chile. The clean, bright flavors and contrasting creamy/crunchy textures of the salad need the kind of do-it-all white wine that’s perfect for summer afternoon sipping. This inexpensive but well-made Sauvignon Blanc from Chile is that wine. With citrus, herbs, flowers, and some tanginess, it’s almost a salad dressing unto itself.
Whether Cubans put beans in the salad or not your recipe was delicious. Keeper! thanks a lot :)
Sapphy--in the US, winter lettuce comes from Salinas, Santa Maria and other coastal California areas, and Yuma AZ. Not hothouses. Field grown, baby--all the way.
Great salad but leave out the beans Cubans don;t put beans in avacado salad.
I liked the lime viniagarette a lot. I left out the black beans, to keep it lighter. It was a hit !!
This looks fantastic although growing up Cuban-American in Miami I have never eaten anything similar at home or in a Cuban restaurant but hey...good is good, right! I always remember just avacado, shaved onion and vinegar+oil salads. Ay Dio mio! Looking forward to trying this one. Recommend getting smooth skinned (not Haas) avocados as they have less moisture and retain shape and firmness in a salad.
Sounds like a great salad to try and I have some black beans and avocados at home...might try it this evening.
Pim, it's not that, it's the fact that in Cuba, it's warm even in December. Most of the produce sold off-season in America, at least, comes from two or three sources: Hot Houses or various areas of South America and other Latin countries. But, yes, Global Warming has become serverely out of hand. Unfortunately:( Bless Mother Earth, and let us all hope someday soon we will learn to revere that which we so easily destroy. But hey, on a lighter note, we are all still breathing without masks! WOOHOO! Gotta' look on the bright on the side of things. LOL! -Sapphy
Excellent! I plan to try this soon!
Tomato and avocado in December, I suppose global warming has come along much quicker than I feared.