TOMATO, CUCUMBER, AVOCADO SALAD

This is a quick and easy salad to put together that uses just a couple of summer ingredients. Juicy cherry tomatoes, cool, crunchy cucumber and creamy avocado. I’ve added some salty feta, red onion and a little minced parsley as well. Toss with a simple red wine vinaigrette and the salad is ready in under 15 minutes A couple of notes: Because this is such a simple salad, presentation means a lot. So try and cut all your ingredients to be roughly the same size – you want to use a very sharp knife that easily slices the vegetables and cheese. Soak the red onion slice in a little water, for

Soak the red onion slice in a little water, for a couple of minutes, before mincing. This will remove some of the raw onion taste. Avocado does not refrigerate well. So if you are not eating it right away, wait to add the avocado until just before serving. It you want to make a vegan version of this tomato, cucumber, avocado salad then substitute kalamata olives for the feta cheese

INGREDIENTS 1½ cups of chopped tomatoes - I used cherry tomatoes 1 cucumber - peeled and seeded then diced 1 avocado - diced 4 oz feta cheese - cubed 2 tbs minced red onion 1 handful parsley - minced - about 2 tbs 2 tbs olive oil 1 tbs red wine vinegar 8 twists of black pepper from a pepper mill

INSTRUCTIONS Chop tomatoes into a medium dice. If using cherry tomatoes, cut in half. Add to a bowl. Peel and seed one cucumber and dice. Add to bowl. Remove pit, dice avocado and using a spoon scoop out the avocado from the peel. Add to bowl. Cube feta and add to bowl. Add minced red onion and minced parsley to bowl. Whisk together olive oil, red wine vinegar and black pepper - pour over salad. Toss gently so the feta and avocado don't break up. Serve immediately. If refrigerating - keep the avocado aside and add before serving.