Smoked Salmon, Avocado and Rocket (Arugula) Salad

I have a regular guest to my house who is quite a healthy eater. Every time I have her over for dinner, she will offer to help me in kitchen while scanning my stove and kitchen benchtop to get an indication what I’ve prepared for the night. I couldn’t help but to notice our kitchen conversation was beginning to sound like a broken record:

Healthy eater: “Errr, where is the salad?”

Me: “Uhh-sorry, I don’t have salad but we can eat some fruits as dessert to make up?” While pointing my index finger in the direction of my fruit basket with a sly smile.

Oh gosh, somehow my reply sounded pretty rude in text. Thankfully, I am really good friends with her which in some ways, warrant me a generous degree of freedom of expression. Talk about taking things for granted huh?

Salad-making is by no mean a difficult task. I have to blame it on the lazy bug that lives inside me for the past few weeeks. However, being active in blogging lately has also made me a tad more elaborate in meal preparation. Although there is no requirement that a food blogger has to make his/her meal very fancy every day, I do want to make every meal counts. Last weekend, in addition to my usual one pot dish (it was a chicken and potato curry), I’ve made smoked salmon, rocket and avocado salad as a starter. For the first time in weeks, we didn’t sound like a broken record. And it’s kinda nice.

Smoked Salmon, Avocado and Rocket (Arugula) Salad

(I think it’s good for 3 people as starters; 1 person as a main with some leftovers)

Ingredients:-

• Rocket leaves (arugula), about 60g (2 oz)
• An avocado
• 1/2 of a full sized lebanese cucumber
• 100g (3 oz) smoked salmon (I used Tassal brand)
• 1 tbsps sesame seeds

Dressing (measure to taste):-

• 1 lime
• about 1/2 cup of olive oil (adjust to your preference)
• Salt to taste
• A drop of sesame oil *optional*

Let’s do it:

(1) In a small dry pan, toast 1 tbsp of sesame seeds over medium flame until lightly brown. Set aside. (2) Wash and dry the rocket leaves. Set aside. (3) Slice cucumber. Set aside. (4) Halve a lime and squeeze the juice into a small bowl. Then add olive oil, sesame oil (if using), salt to taste and  1/2 tbsp of the toasted sesame seeds.  Whisk until it emulsifies. (5) In a salad bowl, add rocket leaves, cucumber and hand torn smoked salmon. (6) Use an avocado slicer to slice the avocado. To avoid the avocado from turning brown, I  dip slices of the avocado in the dressing and add into the salad bowl.  Scatter the remaning toasted sesame seeds as a finishing touch. (7) Serve with the dressing separately.