Avocado, tomato and basil salad

This is so quick, easy and makes a delicious summers day lunch. I was very lucky enough to get hold of some broad bean leaves at the market in Skibbereen at the weekend, which have a superb flavour but are very hard to come by. This would work just as well with rocket, or a baby leaf mix.

Make sure your tomatoes are good and ripe. If you store them in the fridge, get them out onto a warm window sill to ripen a day or two before you want to eat them.

As we have also made a fantastic basil pesto, I strained off some of the oil (sorry Liam) to use as a dressing.

Avocados are, I find, one of these things that are in danger of sitting in the fruit bowl rock solid for a few days after I have bought them. Then, all of a sudden they’re a squidgy brown mess. It seems they only have a window of eating opportunity of an hour, at some mystical appointed time!

Some ways of ripening your avocados is to store them in a brown paper bag, or with some bananas. Both will enocourage the rising of the fruit. Check them twice a day. You can pop them in the fridge if they are getting close to ripeness. Or just eat them.