I’ve been making this Avocado Pine Nut Salad for YEARS. First discovered at my sister’s house eons ago while plowing through her loads of community cookbooks, this has since become a classic family favorite.
It’s a simple salad with a short list of ingredients. The dressing is tangy and and delicious! Need a great salad for a potluck? This Avocado Pine Nut Salad is it. Need a salad that most people will eat? I’ve got you covered. Need a new side salad for dinner because you’re tired of the same old thing? This is the one.
Ingredients needed for Avocado Pine Nut Salad:
- one head of red leaf lettuce
- one head of green leaf lettuce
- tomatoes
- avocado
- toasted pine nuts
- shredded mozzarella cheese
How to toast pine nuts:
To quickly toast the pine nuts, just put them in a small fry pan over medium heat. Watch them closely, and use a wooden spoon to move them around until they are lightly toasted. Be careful- they’ll burn if you don’t tend to them! Pour them onto a paper towel to cool before adding them to your salad. I like to buy pine nuts at Costco. They’re less expensive there, and you can keep the big bag in the freezer and use them as needed.
How to make the dressing:
This is my favorite salad dressing ever. It’s so easy to make that I often make it to add to other simple green salads that we make for dinner. Combine 3 tablespoons of olive oil with 4 tablespoons white wine vinegar and a tablespoon and a half of Dijon mustard. Add salt and freshly ground black pepper, whisk it all together, and it’s ready to use for your Avocado Pine Nut Salad. The dressing may be made ahead, or you can make extra and keep it refrigerated.
This is a simple salad, and it’s darn good. Many in my extended family and network of friends have now incorporated this salad into their meal rotations. It’s that good! Add grilled chicken to make this a main dish salad.
This has been my family’s favorite salad recipe for years and years. Every family gathering we have, this salad makes an appearance! And every event you bring it to, everyone will ask you for the recipe! Serve Avocado Pine Nut Salad with grilled chicken, grilled flank steak or grilled shrimp. Honestly, it’s a great salad that will pair well with just about any main dish.
If you happen to be following the Weight Watchers WW plan, you will find a link to WW Points on the recipe card below.
Avocado Pine Nut Salad
Ingredients
DRESSING:
- 4 tablespoons white wine vinegar
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1½ tablespoons Dijon mustard
- salt and pepper, to taste
SALAD:
- 1 head green leaf lettuce, cleaned and chopped
- 1 head red leaf lettuce, cleaned and chopped
- 2 medium vine-ripened tomatoes, chopped
- 1 large avocado, chopped (about 1 cup)
- ⅓ cup pine nuts, toasted
- ¼ cup shredded mozzarella cheese
Instructions
PREPARE THE DRESSING:
- Place the dressing ingredients in a shaker jar. Shake well (or whisk in a bowl) and refrigerate until chilled.
PREPARE THE SALAD:
- Add the salad ingredients to a large bowl and toss with the chilled dressing (add a little at a time until you have used a desired amount).
- Serve immediately.
Notes
- An easy way to toast raw pine nuts is to dry toast them in a heated saucepan, stirring often so that they do not burn (they burn easily if not watched).
- Grill some chicken and marinate it in the salad dressing for a great summer, main-dish salad!
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I use avocado and some kind of nut and cheese in most all salads I make. Love, love, love! Also, my vinaigrette is similar, sometimes add a touch of honey
Why,why,why do people take a well thought out recipe and change so many things out? If the posted recipe caught your attention and sounds good…..then that is a recipe…..if you are changing things out you should have your own recipe sight and post your changed up recipes…..if it aint broke..dont fix it! Nice recipe!!!
Is the cheese regular Mozzarella or the raw Mozz? Thanks
Just regular shredded mozzarella.
This salad is great! I used kale, red lettuce and iceberg and it was a big hit with my family!
So making these! Gotta find the pine nuts though.
Love this combination; switch the lettuce for pasta and the white vinegar for balsamic and you have the makings of my favorite summer dish too!
Except for the mustard… this looks wonderful!
Trust me… the mustard mixed w/ the white wine vinegar makes a wonderful, tangy dressing. We use it for everything!
I like everything about this recipe!
Saw this on twitter and just had to come and look. Avos are just the best and coming ripening fast on my tree….thx for sharing!
Definitely going to try this one! And we can use raw milk mozz to make it a raw meal. Thanks, Lori!