Favorite Italian Green Salad with Avocado
No other salad – or dish – that I have made over the years has caused a stir quite like this Favorite Italian Green Salad with Avocado. That is a bold statement but an accurate one. It is just a simple iceberg salad with a handful of ingredients. But these ingredients meld together to form a delicious salad that goes with pretty much anything. The reason I say it has caused a stir is because, like many recipes that are handed down, there originally was no recipe. The ingredients were all simply thrown in a bowl and mixed together, usually with bare hands! And there is a knack to getting the seasonings just right on a consistent basis. It is called practice.
I have heard many times, “You told me what to put into it but it doesn’t taste like yours”. “Tell me exactly how you put everything together because mine wasn’t creamy.” … or “tasted too lemony.” …or “it was not salty enough.” And my favorite “Why don’t you just make it!” Haha I am going to do my best to walk you through making this delicious salad so that it will be perfect the first time!
My husband EJ introduced this salad to me before we were married. He cooked steaks, a simple baked potato and this Italian Salad. At the time I didn’t cook AT ALL. He had all the salad ingredients ready in a bowl. Then he just drizzled on some olive oil, then garlic salt and pepper, then a little red wine vinegar. Tasted, then repeated. No recipe. I thought he was a chef! The only other person I had seen mix a salad like that was my grandmother (married to my Italian grandfather). EJ’s salad tasted alot like hers. Actually it was even better because there was avocado in EJ’s salad that made the creamiest base for the simple olive oil and vinegar dressing.
Fast forward to today and this salad is BY FAR the dish I make most often; at least once a week. Some of my kid’s friends call it the Mama Marino Salad, others call it Your Salad. As in, “are we having Your Salad this weekend?” It is a base for my Grilled Steak Salad, it is a side for Sunday lunches, it is served at holiday meals. I make it for all types of occasions all year long. I hope you enjoy it and make it for your family too.
Favorite Italian Green Salad with Avocado
Ingredients
- 1 small head iceberg lettuce torn in bite sized pieces
- 1 ripe avocado
- 1 large tomato seeded, diced
- 1 small red onion, chopped fine can substitute sweet onion
- 1/2 cup sliced black olives
- 1/3-1/2 cup feta cheese crumbled
Dressing Ingredients
- Juice of one small lemon, or juice of half of large lemon about 1 Tbsp
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil approximately
- 1/4 cup red wine vinegar approximately
- 1/2-1 tsp garlic salt to taste
- 1/2 tsp pepper to taste
Instructions
- Squeeze lemon juice into bottom of a large salad bowl. Dice one whole avocado and place in the bottom of the bowl. Stir with a spoon to completely coat with the lemon juice.
- Add the seeded and diced tomatoes, onion, black olives, and a small handful of feta cheese into the salad bowl.
- Put the lettuce on top of the other ingredients. At this point you can put in the refrigerator and hold until ready to serve.
- To dress the salad, drizzle with some -not all- of the olive oil, sprinkle with some of the garlic salt and some fresh black pepper. How much lettuce you have is going to determine how much olive oil you will need. I usually start with around 1/4 cup. Add a few good shakes of red wine vinegar and combine using salad tongs or a couple of large wooden spoons. Make sure the lettuce is coated evenly with the dressing. Taste for seasonings and add more olive oil, seasonings, and/or red wine vinegar if desired.
- Serve with a bit of crumbled feta cheese on top, and some additional black pepper. Mangia!