RECIPES

What We’re Grilling This Week: Grilled Avocado With Baby Greens and Corn Pico de Gallo

grilled avocado recipe
 Credit: Dean Stevenson

Grilled avocado? Yes, and it just might become your new favorite thing to grill. It beats those browning slices you’ve laid out to top burgers, and it sure as hell beats store-bought guacamole. Worthy of creating an appetizer course (hey, that gives you an excuse to offer friends a tequila pairing), this satiating avocado dish is easier than it looks to prepare.

Chef Richard Sandoval serves his grilled avocado over a simple salad with baby greens, but says pea shoots are worth swapping in if you can find them—“the shoots’ vegetal flavor plays well with the other ingredients,” he says. Either way, leave a bottle of hot sauce handy.

“This is an interesting salad that delivers more than expected,” the chef says of his signature preparation, below. “The warm avocado is a surprise against the cool greens, and the spicy pico de gallo gets a sweet note from the corn.” Now, if only we could get our grill marks to look as perfect.

Chef Richard Sandoval’s Grilled Avocado with Baby Greens and Corn Pico de Gallo

 

Makes 4 servings

Prep time

30 minutes min.

Cook time

1 hour min.

Ingredients

  • 2 ripe but firm Hass avocados, halved lengthwise and pitted, but not peeled
  • Canola oil for brushing
  • Kosher salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • 5 oz mixed baby greens
  • Lime wedges for serving
  • For the dressing: 3 tbsp fresh lime juice; ½ tsp kosher salt; ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper; ⅓ cup plus 1 tbsp avocado or extra virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
  • For the corn pico de gallo: 12 oz large tomatoes, seeded and diced into ½ inch; 2 tbsp finely chopped red onion; 1 tbsp finely chopped fresh cilantro; 1 tbsp fresh lime juice; 1 serrano chile, seeded and finely chopped; 1 tsp soy sauce; kosher salt; 1 cup cooked corn, preferably roasted, but canned will work

How to make it

Combine all pico de gallo ingredients in a medium bowl. Cover them with plastic wrap and refrigerate to chill and blend flavors, at least one hour and up to eight hours.
Make the dressing: Whisk together the lime juice salt and pepper in a large bowl. Gradually whisk in the oil. Set the bowl aside.
Prepare an outdoor grill for direct cooking over medium-high heat. For a charcoal grill, let the coals burn until they are covered with white ash and you can hold your hand one inch above the cooking grate for about three seconds. For a gas grill, preheat the grill on high and adjust the heat to 450° Fahrenheit.
Lightly brush the cut sides of the avocados with the canola oil and season them lightly with salt and pepper. Brush the grill grate clean. Place the avocados on the grill, cut sides down. Cook with the lid closed until they are seared with grill marks, 3 to 4 minutes. Turn the avocados over and cook them with the lid closed until the flesh is beginning to shrink away from the skins, about 4 minutes more. Transfer the avocado halves to a cutting board.
Protecting your hand from the hot avocado skins with a clean kitchen towel, use a large serving spoon to scoop out the flesh from each half in one piece. Cut each avocado half into four wedges.
Add the salad greens to the bowl with the dressing and toss. Divide the salad mixture among four dinner plates. Top each with four avocado wedges and about ½-cup of pico de gallo. Drizzle additional avocado oil or olive oil over each salad, garnish with a lime wedge or two, and serve.