Avocado Chicken Salad

In my very earnest attempt at eating healthy, I have been trying to include more veggies and salads in my meals. My idea of eating healthy doesn't really mean cutting out all the indulgent stuff, but just choosing healthier substitutes and yes occasional indulgences must be allowed, and yes I'll face the consequences.
I've been trying out a bunch of salads with different fruits and vegetables, and while all this time, my only known dressing was mayonnaise, (best loved too), I have now discovered some healthier options that taste just as good. So yayyyy to this discovery.

Happy dance!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Annnyyyyywayyyyyy, I've been wanting to try this avocado salad for a really long time, but the plan's usually been put off with not finding avocados or the ones that are perfectly ripe. Luckily, this week , I managed to get a lovely lot of avocados and I just let them ripen on the kitchen counter for a couple of days. This was a very simple salad, that involved almost no cooking, except for the shredded chicken and the salad dressing is very easy to make and healthy too. I loved this salad and gorged on bowls of it, and all guilt free. And that made me very very happy........... I adapted this recipe I found on pinterest to make this salad. Pinterest is wonderful and can inspire a 100 ideas. Sign up, though I must warn you, it can be addictive. You can also follow me on Pinterest, as I pin some interesting recipes and tutorials. Think about it,, :)

I didn't really get the best picture of it... I know. . .  :(



So this salad..... It involves scooping, chopping, shredding and mixing. So lets see how this is done.



Step 1. Cooking and shredding the chicken 

Boil the chicken in a little water with some salt for taste. Once it has cooked, let it cool and then just roughly shred it.

Step 2 : Chop Chop Chop

It's going to take less than 5 minutes to chop all these veggies. I started with chopping the bell peppers, red and yellow,

and I then chopped the onion, not as finely as possible, but somewhere close.

Time for some herbs, you can add as many as you like, but not as much as you can. Some herbs have very strong flavours and can totally overpower all the other flavours of the dish, so use them in small quantities and they'll blend just fine. I used coriander and basil. Basil has a very strong flavour, so don't use too much of it, it can overpower the dish. You could also add some mint. Also in goes the garlic. Try and chop these finely. It's not  pleasant at all to bite into chunks of these.

Step 3: The salad dressing.

For the dressing, scoop out the avocado. I just make a cut in the middle of the fruit, twist the two halves against each other, till they separate and scoop it out, using a sharp spoon.

Mash the avocado fruit a bit. Don't worry about getting it too smooth, a few chunks of avocado in the salad is going to taste just fine.
Add the yogurt and the lime. The lime is important as it prevents the avocado from discolouring, specially if you're making the salad in advance or want to keep it refrigerated for a while before serving.

 Add salt, a bit of pepper and mix this to the chopped veggies and chicken. Healthy salad accomplished!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here is the recipe :

Here is what you will need :


300 gms boneless chicken, cooked and shredded.
1 red bell pepper
1 yellow bell pepper
1 onion, finely chopped
4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
Few leaves of corrainder and basil, finely chopped
1/2 cup plain yogurt
2 ripe avocados
Juice from 1/2 a  lime
Salt and pepper to taste

Here's how you make it :

1. Boil the chicken with a little salt. When it has cooked, let it cool and then shred into pieces

2. Slice the bell peppers, finely chop the onion, garlic, the coriander and basil leaves. Add the chicken to this mixture.

3. To make the salad dressing, scoop the avocados and roughly mash it Mix it with the yogurt and lime,  and add salt and pepper to taste.

4. Mix the avocado dressing with the chicken and vegetables.
5. You can refrigerate it till serving time and serve it cold.