Main course salads are a quick fix

Main dish salads for dinner are a quick and easy option solving the dinnertime dilemma.

Start out with any variety of greens — such as romaine, green or red leaf lettuce, arugula or spinach — and top it with a hearty ingredient. Today’s recipe is topped with avocado slices.

Avocados are part of my weekly diet, I can’t get enough of them. If making this salad tonight, choose ripe avocados. To judge whether it’s ripe, hold it in the palm of your hand and press against the skin slightly; it should yield to gentle pressure. If you don’t plan on using them, say, for several days, buy them nearly rock hard and store them at room temperature. Once ripe, store them in the refrigerator, where they’ll keep several more days. You can ramp up this salad even more, topping it with leftover cooked chicken or salmon.

50 Shades of Greens Salad With Avocado

Serves: 4 (generously). Preparation time: 15 minutes. Total time: 15 minutes.

Adapted from Fine Cooking magazine 2005. Tested by Susan M. Selasky in the Free Press Test Kitchen.

FOR THE VINAIGRETTE:

3 tablespoons good quality olive oil

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon fresh lime juice

2 teaspoons honey

Big pinch of kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

FOR THE SALAD:

1 large head Boston lettuce, largest outer leaves and damaged leaves removed; remainder washed, dried and torn into bite-size pieces

3/4 cup loosely packed mix of fresh flat and curly parsley leaves

1 small bunch frisee, torn into pieces

1 cup arugula leaves

2 to 3 green onions, thinly sliced on the diagonal

1 ripe but firm avocado

In a small bowl, combine all the vinaigrette ingredients and whisk until thoroughly emulsified.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the lettuce, parsley, frisee, arugula and green onions. Drizzle with about 2 tablespoons of the vinaigrette. Evenly divide the salad greens onto four salad plates.

Cut the avocado in half and remove the pit. Scoop out the flesh in one piece. Slice each half crosswise in thin half-moons. Drizzle the avocado with a bit of the vinaigrette and then arrange several slices on each salad. Add another drizzling of vinaigrette, if desired, over each salad.

200 calories (77 percent from fat), 17 g fat (3 g saturated fat), 12 g carbohydrates, 4 g protein, 130 mg sodium, 0 mg cholesterol, 8 g fiber.